As the investigations of Radio Free Asia (RFA) continued in the past weeks, it was revealed that most of the “illegal wells” dug by the Chinese were in Korla. However, according to the information obtained, the ecological balance was damaged because the Chinese authorities turned a blind eye to the “illegal wells.”
“WHAT ABOUT OUR RIGHTS?
In the new video footage shared by the concentration camp witness Zümret Davut on her social media account, wells dug by Uyghur farmers in a village in the Yopurga District of Kashgar were forcibly closed on the grounds that they were “illegal.” While local authorities stated that the operation had been ongoing for at least a year, the young well owner voiced his justified rebellion that “law enforcement officers abuse their duties, consider the state’s politics illegal, and violate their rights,” and recorded the officers trying to close their wells one by one with his mobile phone and shared them on social media platforms originating from China.
According to the footage, the wells dug by Uyghur farmers are being forcibly closed. They are being filled with soil. According to the conversations, it is understood that closing this well means that more than 50 acres of land will be left without water.
According to the information, local authorities have stated that “illegal wells” in the villages should be buried, and landowners can buy water from the so-called Bingtuan (Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps) for their irrigation needs.
According to the report of Free Asia Radio (RFA) in the past weeks, while the perpetrators were released with no hesitation due to the dozens of illegal wells dug by Chinese settlers, they faced a reaction from the local people. It was stated that the well-digging murder reached a level that would threaten the ecological balance of East Turkestan as a result of the government not taking any precautions.
A SYSTEM OF VOLUNTARY SLAVERY?
Turkistan Press Editor Muhammed Ali ATAYURT evaluated the issue as follows: “The increasing Chinese population in East Turkistan has caused the water scarcity problem to increase every year in some regions. According to the relevant Chinese reports and cross-border studies, while the residents of the region can partially solve the problem by opening wells with or without permission, since the last spring, the Chinese authorities in East Turkistan have turned a blind eye to the wells being dug within the framework of the privileges provided to the Chinese settlers, but when it comes to the Uyghurs, they are forcibly closed without inspection. The aim here is to intimidate the people and to force the rural people, who have been facing problems such as ‘Hashar’ and the monopolization of irrigation channels for years, to sell their lands to Bingtuan for free and to ensure that they are included in the voluntary slavery system.”