A Xinjiang prison camp survivor recounted how Chinese guards forced prisoners to ingest herbal teas and pills during his time at a detention facility in a prefecture bordering Kyrgyzstan. Every time they drank the tea, he said, samples of their blood were taken. He made the comments during a Washington press conference on Wednesday morning.
Since his arrival in the U.S. on Friday, that former detainee, Ovalbek Turdakun, has revealed new, previously unknown details about Chinese government abuses from his ten-month ordeal in a Xinjiang camp in 2018. He described the forcible injection of detainees with a mysterious substance that caused severe symptoms — and a feeling of obedience — during a sit-down interview with National Review last night.
At the press conference this morning, co-hosted by a video-surveillance trade group called IPVM and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, he revealed new details about other forced medical practices.
“They made us to eat different kinds of pills and medicines. They gave us different types of herbal teas that they said would help our health and gave us different types of injections,” he said.
Turdakun added later, in response to NR’s question, that the guards gave the prisoners a variety of different herbal teas.
“I remember the color was yellow. It smelled like a medicine. And they said if you drink this you will not get ill,” He added that the Chinese guards didn’t tell them what the pills were for. “The only thing they told everybody is it’s good for you. It’s for our health.”
The guards forced the prisoners to drink the tea and take the pills before they left the room, otherwise they would face even more scrutiny. Turdakun, a Christian, added that Muslim prisoners observing Ramadan were forced to drink and eat during that time.
“When we drank those teas and medicines, we did not feel good and we had a kind of pain in our bodies and got red rashes throughout our bodies,” he said. “Also, we had vision problems, and pain in the leg and nerve illnesses.” Turdakun added that “they took blood again from us,” every time they drank the herbal tea.
He also addressed the injections administered to detainees, saying that he believes the shots were intended to calm the prisoners down.
Turdakun told NR yesterday that the injections, which he secretly discussed with other prisoners while they showered, caused aches, fevers, and gastrointestinal problems.
There was another noteworthy effect that was psychological in nature: “You couldn’t get angry. You were really obedient.”
The shot made him so ill that the guards took him to an infirmary within the camp, where they handcuffed his thumb to the ceiling.