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Chinese Kazakh Survivor Honored With State Department Award

Asim Kashgarian

   Sairagul Sauytbay, who said she faced torture in the Chinese detention
   camps in the Xinjiang region, never thought her story of survival would
   gain international attention one day.

   The 43-year-old Kazakh woman said she was stunned last Wednesday when
   U.S. first lady Melania Trump handed Sauytbay the U.S. State
   Department's International Women of Courage Award for providing
   firsthand details of the human rights situation in the camps.

   "I am also thankful to this country and the Trump administration for
   upholding values of democracy and human rights, and for sending a
   strong signal to China to stop its abuses against both Kazakhs and
   Uighurs who are being oppressed," Sauytbay told VOA.

   She said she hoped her story of survival could inspire other Xinjiang
   residents to speak up about the harsh conditions they are facing.

   "I strongly hope that this award would help raise awareness to the
   human tragedy in East Turkestan, and other countries around the world
   also step out and help the plight of the voiceless Uighurs and Kazakhs
   oppressed in China," she said.

   East Turkestan is a term often used by the Muslim community in China to
   refer to Xinjiang.

   Stepped-up campaign

   Sauytbay worked as a medical doctor when the Chinese authorities
   stepped up their campaign in Xinjiang in early 2017.

   Before her detention by the authorities, she said, she was forced to
   work in a camp as an instructor, teaching other detainees Mandarin and
   Chinese Communist Party propaganda.

   "Chinese authorities confiscated my passport long before I was first
   detained in 2017," Sauytbay told VOA, adding that she was prevented
   from moving to Kazakhstan with her husband and two children in early
   2016.

   She was allegedly tortured and imprisoned in the detention camps for
   about six months before her release in March 2018.

   She crossed the border illegally into Kazakhstan in April 2018 because
   of fears that she could be detained again.

   "The only dream I had at the time was to unite with my family in
   Kazakhstan. So I decided to take the risk to cross the border without
   legal documents," she told VOA.

   While in Kazakhstan, Sauytbay was jailed for illegal border-crossing
   and denied asylum. Sauytbay and her family later moved to Sweden, where
   she gained international attention as a female activist spreading
   awareness of the alleged Chinese crackdown in Xinjiang.