Uyghur Woman Released, Without Forced Abortion
2008-11-18
A Uyghur woman in China avoids a forced abortion, in a case that has drawn international attention.
HONG KONG—An ethnic Uyghur woman in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who was scheduled to undergo a second-term abortion against her will—and whose case drew international attention—has been released to her family and allowed to continue her pregnancy.
“I am all right and I am at home now,” Arzigul Tursun told RFA’s Uyghur service, shortly after she was released from the Women and Children’s Welfare Hospital in Ili prefecture.
“I brought her home,” the local population-control committee chief, Rashide, said. “She wasn’t in good enough health to have an abortion.”
It was a big operation—and they treated us very rudely."
Arzigul Tursun's father
Tursun’s case prompted calls to the Chinese authorities from two members of the U.S. Congress and from the U.S. ambassador in Beijing for a planned abortion of her pregnancy to be scrapped.
Police tracked down Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, on Monday at a private home after she fled Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital, relatives said.
China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese and allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two. But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining], so their status is unclear.
The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja, in the remote northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.
Police operation
On Monday, Tursun’s father Hasan Tursunjan said, between 20 and 30 police cars came to the family home to search for his daughter and take her to the hospital to terminate her pregnancy.
“It was a big operation—and they treated us very rudely,” he said. “They confiscated all our cellphones, but I hid one. One of them was pushing my forehead and saying, ‘You have connections with the separatists in America—see if they can come and rescue your daughter or not.’”
“I was very upset at what he did to me and said, ‘I believe they will rescue us, if not today then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow then the day after tomorrow—they will eventually rescue us,’” Tursunjan said.
“My youngest son was upset and rushed to us and shouted… ‘Don't touch my father!’ The [official] immediately called a few police over and they arrested him. They took him away with a car.”
“When the car I was in came close to the Gulja electrical power station, I saw many police cars were next to a residential neighborhood. I heard from police that they learned my daughter Arzigul was in this neighborhood but they didn’t know where,” he said.
“I told them , ‘Let's go to my relative’s house in the city. I will take you all there.’ They agreed to follow me, but not all of them came with us. Most stayed around that neighborhood,” he said.
“After they searched a house in the city, they took me back to the suspected neighborhood. I saw many police cars. Many people from the neighborhood were watching. My daughter was leaning against the wall of one the buildings and crying. I was very sad…I rushed to her and embraced her. I told her not to cry and wiped her tears.”
Tursunjan said his daughter had been staying with a friend when police found her. “They searched that house. Everything was turned upside down,” he said.
High-level intervention
Two members of the U.S. Congress called on authorities in China to release Tursun and cancel the planned abortion.
Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania on Monday urged officials to "immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place.” On Friday, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, ranking member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called forced abortions a "barbaric practice" and made a personal appeal to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Smith also contacted U.S. Ambassador to China Clark Randt and asked him to intervene. Randt spoke with the executive vice foreign minister, Wang Guanya, Smith’s office said.
Detailed policy
According to China’s official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two. Under “special circumstances,” rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low. Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.
The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.
China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years. And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.
The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.
Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region. Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.
Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population in Xinjiang have a long and tense history, with many Uyghurs objecting in particular to the mass immigration of Han Chinese to the region and to Beijing’s population-control policy.
Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion. But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it calls a war on Islamic terrorism.
Beijing has also accused “hostile forces” in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Uyghur Woman Found, Facing Abortion
Uyghur Woman Found, Facing Abortion
2008-11-17
Authorities find an ethnic Uyghur woman who fled to avoid a forced abortion, which her husband says is now imminent.
KASHGAR, China: A Uyghur man points out directions to women and their children, June 14, 2008.
HONG KONG—An ethnic Uyghur woman in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who fled a local hospital to avoid a forced abortion has been found by police and taken under guard to a larger hospital, according to her husband.
“The police found my wife,” Nurmemet Tohtasin said in a telephone interview from the Women and Children’s Welfare Hospital in Ili prefecture. “My wife’s father was already at the hospital. They will probably do the abortion today.
”Police tracked down Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, at a relative’s home Monday afternoon, he said. Late Sunday, Tursun had fled Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital, where she was scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will.
“Arzigul ran away while the village official who was guarding her went to get her dinner. She left with her slippers, a shirt, and a sleeveless jacket. She didn’t take her bag or her other clothing,” Tohtasin said earlier.
“A village population-control committee member, Bumaryam, told me about this by phone around 8 p.m. The village chief and party secretary took me to the hospital and asked me to find Arzigul. I had to take them to two of Arzigul’s relatives’ homes and to her parents’ home,” Tohtasin said.
“They said if we don’t find Arzigul, they would take our house and our farmland,” he said
. Searched all night
Other relatives, also contacted by telephone, said police had searched their homes looking for Tursun.
The local Party secretary, Nurali, declined to comment, and the Dadamtu township mayor, Juret, hung up the phone. But a nurse at Water Gate hospital confirmed Monday that Tursun had left. “Arzigul ran away,” she said.
Bumaryam, the village official assigned to guard Tursun, said authorities had searched all night Sunday for Tursun and would continue searching until they found her.
China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese and allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two.
But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining], so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja.
Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.
Detailed policy
On Nov. 11, Tohtasin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Water Gate Hospital.
There, Tohtasin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion.
Two members of the U.S. Congress have called on authorities in China to release Tursun and cancel the planned abortionRep.
Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania urged officials to "immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place.
”“Though we know Chinese authorities regularly use forced abortions to enforce its coercive population-control program, carrying out this brutal procedure with the world watching Arzigul Tursun’s case would display an utter disregard for any notion of human rights by the Chinese authorities," Pitts said in a statement.
On Friday, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, ranking member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called forced abortions a "barbaric practice" and made a personal appeal to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Smith said that human rights groups and the U.S. government would be watching carefully to see what happens to Tursun and her family.
On Monday, Smith said he had spoken with Zhou, who said he would look into the case. He said he had also contacted U.S. Ambassador to China Clark Randt and asked him to intervene.
According to China’s official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two.
Under “special circumstances,” rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low.
Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.
The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.
China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years.
And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.
The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.
Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region. Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.
Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population have a long and tense history, with many Uyghurs objecting in particular to the mass immigration of Han Chinese to the region and to Beijing’s population-control policy.
Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.
But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it calls a war on Islamic terrorism.
It has also accused “hostile forces” in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.
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2008-11-17
Authorities find an ethnic Uyghur woman who fled to avoid a forced abortion, which her husband says is now imminent.
KASHGAR, China: A Uyghur man points out directions to women and their children, June 14, 2008.
HONG KONG—An ethnic Uyghur woman in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who fled a local hospital to avoid a forced abortion has been found by police and taken under guard to a larger hospital, according to her husband.
“The police found my wife,” Nurmemet Tohtasin said in a telephone interview from the Women and Children’s Welfare Hospital in Ili prefecture. “My wife’s father was already at the hospital. They will probably do the abortion today.
”Police tracked down Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, at a relative’s home Monday afternoon, he said. Late Sunday, Tursun had fled Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital, where she was scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will.
“Arzigul ran away while the village official who was guarding her went to get her dinner. She left with her slippers, a shirt, and a sleeveless jacket. She didn’t take her bag or her other clothing,” Tohtasin said earlier.
“A village population-control committee member, Bumaryam, told me about this by phone around 8 p.m. The village chief and party secretary took me to the hospital and asked me to find Arzigul. I had to take them to two of Arzigul’s relatives’ homes and to her parents’ home,” Tohtasin said.
“They said if we don’t find Arzigul, they would take our house and our farmland,” he said
. Searched all night
Other relatives, also contacted by telephone, said police had searched their homes looking for Tursun.
The local Party secretary, Nurali, declined to comment, and the Dadamtu township mayor, Juret, hung up the phone. But a nurse at Water Gate hospital confirmed Monday that Tursun had left. “Arzigul ran away,” she said.
Bumaryam, the village official assigned to guard Tursun, said authorities had searched all night Sunday for Tursun and would continue searching until they found her.
China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese and allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two.
But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining], so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja.
Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.
Detailed policy
On Nov. 11, Tohtasin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Water Gate Hospital.
There, Tohtasin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion.
Two members of the U.S. Congress have called on authorities in China to release Tursun and cancel the planned abortionRep.
Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania urged officials to "immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place.
”“Though we know Chinese authorities regularly use forced abortions to enforce its coercive population-control program, carrying out this brutal procedure with the world watching Arzigul Tursun’s case would display an utter disregard for any notion of human rights by the Chinese authorities," Pitts said in a statement.
On Friday, Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, ranking member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, called forced abortions a "barbaric practice" and made a personal appeal to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Smith said that human rights groups and the U.S. government would be watching carefully to see what happens to Tursun and her family.
On Monday, Smith said he had spoken with Zhou, who said he would look into the case. He said he had also contacted U.S. Ambassador to China Clark Randt and asked him to intervene.
According to China’s official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two.
Under “special circumstances,” rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low.
Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.
The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.
China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years.
And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.
The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.
Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region. Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.
Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the predominantly Muslim Uyghur population have a long and tense history, with many Uyghurs objecting in particular to the mass immigration of Han Chinese to the region and to Beijing’s population-control policy.
Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.
But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it calls a war on Islamic terrorism.
It has also accused “hostile forces” in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.
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Rep. Pitts urges China to cancel forced abortion and let woman go
Rep. Pitts urges China to cancel forced abortion and let woman go
Reports note Chinese officials planning to force Uyghur woman to undergo abortion against her will
Reports note Chinese officials planning to force Uyghur woman to undergo abortion against her will
Washington- Congressman Joe Pitts (PA-16) released the following statement today regarding reports that Chinese officials are holding a Uyghur ethnic minority woman, Arzigul Tursun, and plan to force her to undergo an abortion: "I call on the Chinese Government to immediately intervene in order to stop any forced abortion from taking place.” Congressman Pitts said. “Though we know Chinese authorities regularly use forced abortions to enforce its coercive population control program, carrying out this brutal procedure with the world watching Arzigul Tursun’s case would display an utter disregard for any notion of human rights by the Chinese authorities. The Chinese Government should immediately release her from custody and allow her to carry her child to term.
”Background
On Thursday, November 13, Radio Free Asia and the Uyghur Human Rights Project reported that Chinese authorities tried to pressure Arzigul Tursun, a Uyghur ethnic minority, who is 26 weeks pregnant with her third child, to have an abortion. When she refused and fled her home, authorities interrogated and threatened her relatives. Authorities took her into custody on November 11. According to the reports, the authorities forced a relative to sign a document authorizing the abortion. The abortion procedure was originally scheduled for Thursday, November 13.
Tursun escaped the hospital in order to avoid the forced abortion. After searching the homes of her friends and relatives, Chinese authorities captured her again, and are holding her now at a different hospital.
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Joint Statement by Representatives Chris Smith and Joe Pitts
Joint Statement by Representatives Chris Smith and Joe Pitts
Washington, Nov 18 - “Today’s report that Arzigul Tursun, a Muslim Uyghur woman from China’s Xinjiang region, has apparently been released from custody is great news for both her family and women throughout China. The decision to spare Arzigul and her child from the tragedy of forced abortion is, we hope, a sign that more women in China will be saved from this grave human rights abuse. “We understand that the local population-control committee chief stated that the abortion would have compromised Arzigul Tursun’s health. We know that abortion threatens women’s physical and mental health, and we further recognize that abortion always destroys the life of a child. There are always two victims in every abortion, and we are relieved that this abortion did not take place. “As Members of Congress, we continue to urge the US government to do everything possible to end human rights abuses in China, including withholding funds from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) until they divest themselves from providing support to the agency that carries out China’s abusive population control program.” Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Joe Pitts (R-PA), both members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, have vowed to continue to carefully follow Arzigul’s case to help ensure that she and her family do not suffer any direct or subtle forms of retribution for her courage in fighting to save her child. In the last few days both Reps. Smith and Pitts pressed Chinese officials to release Arzigul and to allow her to keep her baby. Smith also raised concerns directly with Zhou Wenzhong, Chinese ambassador to the United States and Clark Randt, U.S. ambassador to China.
Rep. Chris Smith press release 11/13/08: http://chrissmith.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=105765
Rep. Joe Pitts press release 11/17/08: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa16_pitts/Tursun.shtml
Washington, Nov 18 - “Today’s report that Arzigul Tursun, a Muslim Uyghur woman from China’s Xinjiang region, has apparently been released from custody is great news for both her family and women throughout China. The decision to spare Arzigul and her child from the tragedy of forced abortion is, we hope, a sign that more women in China will be saved from this grave human rights abuse. “We understand that the local population-control committee chief stated that the abortion would have compromised Arzigul Tursun’s health. We know that abortion threatens women’s physical and mental health, and we further recognize that abortion always destroys the life of a child. There are always two victims in every abortion, and we are relieved that this abortion did not take place. “As Members of Congress, we continue to urge the US government to do everything possible to end human rights abuses in China, including withholding funds from the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) until they divest themselves from providing support to the agency that carries out China’s abusive population control program.” Representatives Chris Smith (R-NJ) and Joe Pitts (R-PA), both members of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, have vowed to continue to carefully follow Arzigul’s case to help ensure that she and her family do not suffer any direct or subtle forms of retribution for her courage in fighting to save her child. In the last few days both Reps. Smith and Pitts pressed Chinese officials to release Arzigul and to allow her to keep her baby. Smith also raised concerns directly with Zhou Wenzhong, Chinese ambassador to the United States and Clark Randt, U.S. ambassador to China.
Rep. Chris Smith press release 11/13/08: http://chrissmith.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=105765
Rep. Joe Pitts press release 11/17/08: http://www.house.gov/apps/list/press/pa16_pitts/Tursun.shtml
Smith Makes Urgent Appeal to Chinese Authorities Uyghur Woman Threatened With Forced Abortion
Uyghur Woman Threatened With Forced Abortion
Smith Makes Urgent Appeal to Chinese Authorities
Washington, Nov 13 -
"I appeal to the Chinese Government not to forcibly abort Arzigul, a Uyghur woman now in the custody of China’s population police and awaiting the nightmare of a forced abortion," said Rep. Chris Smith, the House Ranking Member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. "The Chinese Government is notorious for this barbaric practice, but to forcibly abort a woman while the world watches in full knowledge of what is going on would make a mockery of its claim that the central government disapproves of the practice, and of the UN Population Fund pretense that it has moderated the Chinese population planners’ cruelty. Human rights groups and the U.S. Government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family."
Smith made a personal appeal on behalf of Arzigul directly to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Earlier on Thursday, November 13, Radio Free Asia and the Uyghur Human Rights Project reported that Chinese authorities tried to pressure Arzigul, a Uighur woman from the locality of Yining (in the Uyghur language, Ghulja) who is 26 weeks pregnant with her third child, to have an abortion. When Arzigul refused and fled her village, the authorities interrogated and threatened her relatives until they were able to take her into custody on November 11. According to the reports, the authorities forced a relative to sign a document authorizing the abortion, and began doing health tests to assess her ability to withstand a forced abortion, which was scheduled for Thursday, November 13. Arzigul is now reported to be in the maternity ward in a Yining hospital. Word of the threatened human rights abuse leaked out, and RFA and the UHRP have received a reliable report that the forced abortion has not yet been performed, thanks to rapidly developing international interest in the case.
Despite official denials, it has been documented that the Chinese Government regularly relies on forced abortion to enforce its one-child-per-couple population control program.
"I appeal to the Chinese Government not to forcibly abort Arzigul, a Uyghur woman now in the custody of China’s population police and awaiting the nightmare of a forced abortion," said Rep. Chris Smith, the House Ranking Member on the Congressional-Executive Commission on China. "The Chinese Government is notorious for this barbaric practice, but to forcibly abort a woman while the world watches in full knowledge of what is going on would make a mockery of its claim that the central government disapproves of the practice, and of the UN Population Fund pretense that it has moderated the Chinese population planners’ cruelty. Human rights groups and the U.S. Government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family."
Smith made a personal appeal on behalf of Arzigul directly to Chinese ambassador Zhou Wenzhong.
Earlier on Thursday, November 13, Radio Free Asia and the Uyghur Human Rights Project reported that Chinese authorities tried to pressure Arzigul, a Uighur woman from the locality of Yining (in the Uyghur language, Ghulja) who is 26 weeks pregnant with her third child, to have an abortion. When Arzigul refused and fled her village, the authorities interrogated and threatened her relatives until they were able to take her into custody on November 11. According to the reports, the authorities forced a relative to sign a document authorizing the abortion, and began doing health tests to assess her ability to withstand a forced abortion, which was scheduled for Thursday, November 13. Arzigul is now reported to be in the maternity ward in a Yining hospital. Word of the threatened human rights abuse leaked out, and RFA and the UHRP have received a reliable report that the forced abortion has not yet been performed, thanks to rapidly developing international interest in the case.
Despite official denials, it has been documented that the Chinese Government regularly relies on forced abortion to enforce its one-child-per-couple population control program.
Won’t Anyone Listen to Justice?
Won’t Anyone Listen to Justice?
2008-11-19A Uyghur father describes his pregnant daughter's capture by family planning officials in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
Radio Free Asia’s Uyghur service recently interviewed the father of Arzigul, an ethnic Uyghur woman in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region who was scheduled to undergo a second-term abortion against her will. After her case drew international attention, Arzigul was released to her family and allowed to continue her pregnancy.
Tursunjan talks about how, after escaping from guards where she was being held, local authorities found Arzigul and forced her to return to the hospital that was to perform her abortion.
“Monday the police came to our home with more than 20 cars and took all of us—me, Arzigul's husband, and our family members—to our relatives’ and friends’ homes to search for Arzigul.
““It was a big operation—and they treated us very rudely. They confiscated all our cellphones, but I hid one. One of them, the Dadamtu town communist party secretary, was pushing my forehead and saying, ‘You have connections with the separatists in America—see if they can come and rescue your daughter or not.’ ”
“I was very upset at what he did to me and said, ‘I believe they will rescue us, if not today then tomorrow, and if not tomorrow then the day after tomorrow—they will eventually rescue us.’
”“My youngest son was upset and rushed to us and shouted… ‘Don't touch my father!’ The [official] immediately called a few police over and they arrested him. They took him away with a car.
I tried to lead them away
When the car I was in came close to the Gulja electrical power station, I saw many police cars were next to a residential neighborhood. I heard from police that they learned my daughter Arzigul was in this neighborhood but they didn’t know where,” he said.
“I was very scared when I heard this from the police. I tried to lead them away from the area. I told them, ‘Let's go to my relative’s house in the city. I will take you all there.’ They agreed to follow me, but not all of them came with us. Most stayed around that neighborhood.” “After they searched a house in the city, they took me back to the suspected neighborhood.
I saw many police cars. Many people from the neighborhood were watching. My daughter was leaning against the wall of one the buildings and crying. I was very sad…I rushed to her and embraced her. I told her not to cry and wiped her tears.
“One of the police told me, ‘your daughter didn't want to get into the police car—you tell her to get into the car. We don’t want to touch her because she is pregnant.’ I said, ‘why I should do that? I don't want her get into the car of a killer.
Won’t anyone listen to justice?
They started to threaten me. I was very upset. I started to shout at the crowd very loudly. ‘Look everyone, these ‘killers’ want to abort my daughter’s 7 month old unborn baby! Listen to me! Won’t anyone listen to justice? I can't ask the government or these killers! That is why I have to ask you!’ I could see the anger in the eyes of the people, and especially in the eyes of the youngsters. But no one could do anything. If anyone got involved they would be arrested or killed.” “After a while, I noticed that my daughter was shaking. She had only a few clothes on. The police were telling us to get into the car. We demanded that they release my son and bring him to us. My daughter said, ‘It was I who escaped. My father and siblings have nothing to do with this. Release my brother first and then I will get into the car and go with you.
’” “The police brought my son, Heytem, back and released him to us. Then we got into the car and they took us directly to the Ghulja Women and Children's Hospital.
Studying Islam is illegal
” “When the police were searching for Arzigul they threatened her friend saying her house would be destroyed. They searched the house and turned everything upside down. When they finally found my daughter they took her outside and told her to get into the car. I arrived right at that moment.
” “They didn't have a chance to interrogate Arzigul’s friend at that moment, as far as I know, but after the authorities finish working on my daughter’s case I believe they will eventually get to her.”
Uyghur Woman Faces Forced Abortion
Uyghur Woman Faces Forced Abortion
2008-11-13
An ethnic Uyghur woman faces an imminent abortion of her third child.
Uyghur women in Aksu, in China's western Xinjiang autonomous region, July 31, 2008.
HONG KONG—Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, is under guard in a hospital in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will because authorities say she is entitled to only two children.
As a member of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority, Tursun is legally permitted to more than the one child allowed most people in China. But when word of a third pregnancy reached local authorities, they coerced her into the hospital for an abortion, according to her husband.
"Arzigul is being kept in bed number three," a nurse in the women's section at Gulja's Water Gate Hospital said in a telephone interview. "We will give an injection first. Then she will experience abdominal pain, and the baby will come out by itself. But we haven't given her any injection yet—we are waiting for instructions from the doctors."
China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese but allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two.
...They have to pay a fine of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)—that's a lot of money, and they won't have it."
Family planning official Rashide
But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband, Nurmemet Tohtasin, is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining] so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja.
Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country, through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.
"My wife is being kept in the hospital—village officials are guarding her," Tohtisin said before authorities directed him late Thursday to switch off his mobile phone.
"When she fled the village to avoid abortion, police and Party officials, and the family planning committee officials, all came and interrogated us," he said. "The deputy chief of the village, a Chinese woman named Wei Yenhua, threatened that if we didn't find Arzigul and bring her to the village, she would confiscate our land and all our property."Steep fines
On Nov. 11, Tohtisin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital.
There, Tohtisin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion.
"The abortion should be carried out because according to the family planning policy of China, you're not allowed to have more children than the government has regulated. Therefore she should undergo an abortion. This is their third child. She is 6-1/2 months pregnant now," Rashide said.
"If her health is normal, then the abortion will definitely take place. Otherwise they have to pay a fine in the amount of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)—that's a lot of money, and they won't have it," she added.
Arzigul Tursun's abortion was originally scheduled for Thursday, but hospital authorities said they had postponed it until Monday after numerous calls from local and exiled Uyghurs.
Officials then told her husband to switch off his mobile phone and stop making calls.
Carrots and sticks
According to the official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two.
Under "special circumstances," rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low.
Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.
The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.
China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years.
And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.
The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.
Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region.
Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.
Congressional appeal
Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, appealed on Thursday to Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong to intervene.
"Human rights groups and the U.S. government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family," Smith, senior member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in a statement. "I appeal to the Chinese government not to forcibly abort Arzigul."
Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the Uyghur population have a long and tense history.
Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.
But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it regards as a war on Islamic terrorism.
It has also accused "hostile forces" in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.
2008-11-13
An ethnic Uyghur woman faces an imminent abortion of her third child.
Uyghur women in Aksu, in China's western Xinjiang autonomous region, July 31, 2008.
HONG KONG—Arzigul Tursun, six months pregnant with her third child, is under guard in a hospital in China's northwestern Xinjiang region, scheduled to undergo an abortion against her will because authorities say she is entitled to only two children.
As a member of the predominantly Muslim Uyghur minority, Tursun is legally permitted to more than the one child allowed most people in China. But when word of a third pregnancy reached local authorities, they coerced her into the hospital for an abortion, according to her husband.
"Arzigul is being kept in bed number three," a nurse in the women's section at Gulja's Water Gate Hospital said in a telephone interview. "We will give an injection first. Then she will experience abdominal pain, and the baby will come out by itself. But we haven't given her any injection yet—we are waiting for instructions from the doctors."
China's one-child-per-family policy applies mainly to majority Han Chinese but allows ethnic minorities, including Uyghurs, to have additional children, with peasants permitted to have three children and city-dwellers two.
...They have to pay a fine of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)—that's a lot of money, and they won't have it."
Family planning official Rashide
But while Tursun is a peasant, her husband, Nurmemet Tohtasin, is from the city of Gulja [in Chinese, Yining] so their status is unclear. The couple live with their two children in Bulaq village, Dadamtu township, in Gulja.
Their experience sheds rare light on how China's one-child policy is enforced in remote parts of the country, through fines, financial incentives, and heavy-handed coercion by zealous local officials eager to meet population targets set by cadres higher up.
"My wife is being kept in the hospital—village officials are guarding her," Tohtisin said before authorities directed him late Thursday to switch off his mobile phone.
"When she fled the village to avoid abortion, police and Party officials, and the family planning committee officials, all came and interrogated us," he said. "The deputy chief of the village, a Chinese woman named Wei Yenhua, threatened that if we didn't find Arzigul and bring her to the village, she would confiscate our land and all our property."Steep fines
On Nov. 11, Tohtisin said, an official named Rashide from the village family planning committee came to their home and escorted the couple, along with Arzigul's father, to the Gulja's municipal Water Gate Hospital.
There, Tohtisin said, he was pressured into signing forms authorizing an abortion.
"The abortion should be carried out because according to the family planning policy of China, you're not allowed to have more children than the government has regulated. Therefore she should undergo an abortion. This is their third child. She is 6-1/2 months pregnant now," Rashide said.
"If her health is normal, then the abortion will definitely take place. Otherwise they have to pay a fine in the amount of 45,000 yuan (U.S. $6,590)—that's a lot of money, and they won't have it," she added.
Arzigul Tursun's abortion was originally scheduled for Thursday, but hospital authorities said they had postponed it until Monday after numerous calls from local and exiled Uyghurs.
Officials then told her husband to switch off his mobile phone and stop making calls.
Carrots and sticks
According to the official news agency, Xinhua, Uyghurs in the countryside are permitted three children while city-dwellers may have two.
Under "special circumstances," rural families are permitted one more child, although what constitutes special circumstances was unclear.
The government also uses financial incentives and disincentives to keep the birthrate low.
Couples can also pay steep fines to have more children, although the fines are well beyond most people's means.
The official Web site China Xinjiang Web reports that in Kashgar, Hotan, and Kizilsu [in Chinese, Kezilesu], areas populated almost entirely by Uyghurs, women over 49 with only one child are entitled to a one-time payment of 3,000 yuan (U.S. $440), with the couple receiving 600 yuan (U.S. $88) yearly afterward.
China's official Tianshan Net reported that population control policies in Xinjiang have prevented the births of some 3.7 million people over the last 30 years.
And according to China Xinjiang Web on Sept. 26, 2008, the government will spend 25.6 million yuan (U.S. $3.7 million) this year rewarding families who have followed the population policy.
The one-child policy is enforced more strictly in cities, but penalties for exceeding a family's quota can be severe, including job losses, demotions, or expulsion from the Party, experts say.
Officials at all levels are subject to rewards or penalties based on whether they meet population targets set by their administrative region.
Citizens are legally entitled to sue officials who they believe have overstepped their authority in enforcing the policy.
Congressional appeal
Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey in the U.S. House of Representatives, appealed on Thursday to Chinese Ambassador Zhou Wenzhong to intervene.
"Human rights groups and the U.S. government will be watching very carefully to see what happens to Arzigul and her family," Smith, senior member of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China, said in a statement. "I appeal to the Chinese government not to forcibly abort Arzigul."
Tense relations
Relations between Chinese authorities and the Uyghur population have a long and tense history.
Uyghurs formed two short-lived East Turkestan republics in the 1930s and 40s during the Chinese civil war and the Japanese invasion.
But China subsequently took control of the region, and Beijing has in recent years launched a campaign against Uyghur separatism, which it regards as a war on Islamic terrorism.
It has also accused "hostile forces" in the West of fomenting unrest in the strategically important and resource-rich region, which borders several countries in Central Asia.
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