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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Lauren Gambino in Washington

‘Like a war zone’: Congress hears of China’s abuses in Xinjiang ‘re-education camps’

Qelbinur Sidik and Gulbahar Haitiwaji before the House committee.
Qelbinur Sidik and Gulbahar Haitiwaji before the House committee. Haitiwaji said detainees were punished for speaking in Uyghur and endured routine interrogations. Photograph: Carolyn Kaster/AP

Two women who say they experienced and eventually escaped Chinese “re-education” camps provided first-hand testimony to members of the US Congress on Thursday night, offering harrowing accounts of life in detention while urging Americans not to look away from what the US has declared a continuing genocide of Muslim ethnic minorities.

Speaking before a special bipartisan House committee at the start of Ramadan, Gulbahar Haitiwaji, a Uyghur woman, said she spent nearly three years in internment camps and police stations, during which she was subjected to 11 hours of daily “brainwashing education” that included singing patriotic songs and praising the Chinese government before and after meals.

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