An ethnic Kazakh woman wanted by authorities in China for disclosing information about prison camps in the western Xinjiang autonomous region has been allowed to leave Kazakhstan and resettle in Sweden who accompanied her to the airport in Almaty “Goodbye Sayragul! May your life go smoothly,” Umarova wrote on Facebook “Remember that you are a real Kazakh woman even though you may have not been treated decently by certain officials.” Sauytbay’s departure from Kazakhstan will be greeted with relief by authorities in Nur-Sultan who never quite felt comfortable dealing with her case Sauytbay last April fled to Kazakhstan from China. She was detained by security services after she was found to have crossed the border on a fake passport she revealed that she had been subjected to persecution in China where many hundreds of thousands of people from mainly Islamic ethnic groups have been rounded up and confined in re-education camps Sauytbay was in August handed a suspended sentence by a court in the eastern town of Zharkent The judge also ruled that Sauytbay would not be liable for deportation Kazakhstan has rebuffed her legal pleas to be granted asylum she will be able to apply for asylum there Almaz Kumenov is an Almaty-based journalist Sign up for Eurasianet's free weekly newsletter. Support Eurasianet: Help keep our journalism open to all The Zharkent area of Kazakhstan doesn't get a lot of tourists so if you do happen to find yourself there locals are likely to highlight one of the most important sights in their neighborhood: the Holy Elm Tree of Auliyeagash a holy tree (“Agash” means “tree” in Kazakh) rumored to be at least 700 years old The number seven is key to the tree’s power You may hear that the tree is 700 years old and that it takes seven people joining hands to encircle the tree a Muslim pilgrim once went to sleep under a dead Other stories state that water springing from the roots of the tree is healing that a visit to the tree cures infertility and that somehow the tree saved people from invading troops led by Genghis Khan If you are able to ask locals about these legends you absolutely should—just don’t expect the stories to be totally consistent The approach to the tree is from the entrance arch via a wooden walkway through a small park full of other many seemingly bending towards the main tree Believers say this is because the smaller trees are all bowing to the older tree Nearing the tree you will see handkerchiefs and scraps of fabric tied to branches in tribute is a hole filled with purported holy water which people drink either for their physical or spiritual health The main attraction has undergone some rather severe trimming in recent years in an effort to keep the rest of the tree alive and healthy But even if the tree itself is a bit smaller than it once was the park is quite peaceful and beautiful and the importance of the tree to the local community is very touching The village of Auliyeagash can be found by heading west from Zharkent towards Almaty and then turning right at Koktal Not far past the village you can find the entrance to the park marked with some metal railings and a small entrance arch Colored pieces of fabric are tied to the gate even with the best directions and great GPS this might be a little hard to find without some help from locals literally everyone in the area knows about the holy tree Then find a local to ask any time you worry you’ve lost your way or just want to check that you’re still headed in the right direction An allegedly cursed tree represents a town's reckoning with a racist past Campus tradition says couples who walk beneath this enormous oak will stay together forever dead skeleton of an oak tree is said to have consoled a dying 16th-century Italian poet English parliaments were once convened by this ancient oak tree in the heart of Sherwood Forest This collection of Dwarf beech trees were once believed to be enchanted trolls in disguise a noble knight and a terrible dragon lie beneath this storied hill A creepy tree with a local legend that inspired a nearby theme park ride Kazakhstan - First-of-its-kind courtroom testimony here has corroborated allegations that the Chinese government has built a network of internment camps in western China where Muslim minorities are held without charge for "reeducation." said she crossed from China's Xinjiang region to Kazakhstan without proper papers after being forced to work at a camp where 2,500 ethnic Kazakhs were being held for indoctrination but really it was a prison in the mountains," she told a court last month packed with Kazakh villagers reporters and a few tight-lipped Chinese diplomats Interviews by The Washington Post with 20 other people in Kazakhstan familiar with the experiences of ethnic Kazakhs in China including three former detainees and more than a dozen people who believe a family member is in detention their statements provide new evidence of extralegal detention and forced indoctrination in Xinjiang which has been predominantly targeting ethnic Uighur Muslims People who have recently arrived here from China told of villages with checkpoints and countless security cameras and scanners where those suspected of having foreign ties can be interrogated held without charge and sent to "reeducation centers" indefinitely Muslim minorities spend their days singing propaganda songs like "Without the Communist Party There Would Be No New China," and their nights in crowded cells One man released from a camp said he had been waterboarded deputy assistant secretary of state for China said at a briefing in Beijing that "at least" tens of thousands of Chinese Muslims are in detention Experts at a July 26 hearing in Washington held by the Congressional-Executive Commission on China - a body created by Congress in 2000 with a legislative mandate to monitor human rights and rule of law - suggested the number could be hundreds of thousands or more in April criticized "the increasing levels of repression in Xinjiang." She said "We are concerned about the widespread detentions and the unprecedented levels of surveillance." Chinese officials have repeatedly dodged questions about the internment allegations At a July 23 hearing at the court in Zharkent a Chinese diplomat declined to answer questions about Sauytbay's case Asked to comment on The Washington Post's findings specifically allegations of extralegal detention and torture China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent a short statement "I only want to emphasize that at the moment the overall situation of Xinjiang society is stable the momentum of its economic development is good and ethnic groups live in harmony," the statement read who was in court on charges that she had entered Kazakhstan illegally testified that she feared for her safety should she be deported back to China: "That I am discussing this camp in an open court means I am already revealing state secrets." Sauytbay grew up in Xinjiang's far northwest As children they were educated in Kazakh and Chinese a government-led shift toward Chinese-language education meant their children are not totally comfortable in Kazakh The fraught relationship between the Communist Party and Muslim minorities took a sharp turn for the worse when violence shook Urumqi After attacks by Uighurs in the years that followed the government declared a "people's war" on terror launching evermore stringent security measures "You cross from one road to another and they check you again," Islam said of their hometown had her passport seized by local officials some ethnic minorities in China have had their passports confiscated or were prevented from getting new passports according to a reportby Human Rights Watch and two interviewees officials asked for the passports of Sauytbay's husband and children and they decided it was time to leave for Kazakhstan 'I'm a woman and member of the Communist Party Maybe things will settle down and I can join you,' " Islam recalled she was informed that she was being transferred to what was described to her as an "education center." That spring she arrived to see it was actually an internment camp housing thousands of Kazakhs Sauytbay told her husband the "education" was "all about the party." Guards locked everyone in a room blasted propaganda from speakers and made them sing Communist Party songs A recent analysis by China Human Rights Defenders 21 percent of criminal arrests in China last year took place in Xinjiang - even though the population is just 1.5 percent of the country's total Arrests jumped more than eightfold last year: from 27,404 in 2016 to an estimated 227,882 in 2017 Those numbers do not include residents sent to the camps Interviews here with separated families and former camp detainees indicate that detention without trial and mass internment are happening outside the penal system He was born in Xinjiang in 1948 and worked for the government for 40 years before becoming a resident of Kazakhstan he was called back to his hometown to take care of some pension-related paperwork Her mother told her over the phone that her father had been taken for education not to look for him," Kurmanjan Silam said "They said they found something on his phone and took him away," she said She tried to find out when and how he was sentenced only to conclude there was no charge or trial I would have gotten a paper saying he was tried," she said don't even know if he is alive or not or how he's feeling worked as a musician in Beijing and Shanghai his parents and both his brothers came to Kazakhstan in June 2017 to celebrate his child's first birthday Amanzhan Seiituly was born in China but became a citizen of Kazakhstan traveling back and forth between the countries for years He flew to Beijing in February for a business trip but was stopped at the airport and interrogated about his connections in Kazakhstan "They were asking everything about what I do in Kazakhstan he was forced to fly to Xinjiang and was driven by police to his hometown He spent days at the local police station before being transferred to a detention facility that officials called an "education center," he said inmates were forced to sit for hours and sing -- "The Communist Party is good the Communist Party is good," as one refrain went who was released with him in March after spending months in various forms of detention who was born in China but is now a Kazakh citizen said he returned to Xinjiang to see his parents and was called in by local authorities in November 2017 to discuss his citizenship paperwork literacy classes because he could not read or write Chinese His was not the first allegation of torture in the camps: Another detainee previously interviewed by The Washington Post said he had been strapped for hours to a device called the "tiger chair." 'If you don't learn Chinese you will be in prison for five years,' " he recalled "I didn't think I would ever be released." officials told him not to talk about what happened - and for months The detention of its citizens in China has forced Kazakhstan's government to "walk a tightrope" between the demands of its people and the dictates of one of its most important trading partners a Hong Kong-based China senior researcher at Human Rights Watch Kazakhstan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had raised the subject with the Chinese side and called for the the release of Kazakhs with dual citizenship Coverage of Sauytbay's trial led the Chinese consulate general in Almaty we've noticed different individuals zealously campaigning about the so-called 'problems of the ethnic Kazakhs from Xinjiang,' " he told local media "They've done this on the Internet and out in public inventing unfounded accusations with the evil intent of staining Xinjiang's image grossly interfering in China's internal affairs and baselessly criticizing the Chinese government." Sauytbay was released from custody and spared immediate deportation Judge Dinara Quiqabaeva suspended Sauytbay's six-month sentence because of the "exceptional circumstances" of her case Sauytbay was mobbed by supporters shouting And her family can't forget what's going on just across the border The Washington Post's Dinara Salieva contributed to this report In a disturbing feature by David Stavrou in Haaretz describes her detention in one of Xinjiang who said she was brought in to teach Chinese and Communist propaganda to the other prisoners said she witnessed inhuman atrocities before being granted asylum in Sweden.  her husband and two children were able to escape from their home across the border with Kazakhstan who said her passport had been confiscated she was taken to a "re-education" camp — she has no idea where it was located Sauytbay also described horrific conditions during her detention Prisoners who were observant Muslims were forced to eat pork Sauytbay estimated there were around 2,500 prisoners at the camp all subject to the brutality of the Chinese state "They would punish inmates for everything," Sauytbay told Stavrou through an interpreter "Anyone who didn't follow the rules was punished Those who didn't learn Chinese properly or who didn't sing the songs were also punished," she said.  Punishments could be anything from being deprived of food to having one's fingernails ripped out Sauytbay describes being forced to witness a gang rape while at the camp was forced to disrobe after being forced to "confess" her sins in front of around 200 prisoners The young woman was then raped by several police officers "While they were raping her they checked to see how we were reacting People who turned their head or closed their eyes were taken away and we never saw them again." Forced abortions and contraceptives have also been reported in The Washington Post and Haaretz Women were forcibly fitted with intrauterine devices a 31-year-old Uighur student of Islamic studies is one of several women who reported being forced to have an abortion while in the camps Perhat told The Post she was repeatedly raped by Chinese guards; she twice found herself pregnant and had the pregnancies forcibly terminated.  Several majority-Muslim countries, including Saudi Arabia, defended China's methods in a letter in July Please enable JS and disable any ad blocker train "Tauelsіz Kazakhstan" arrived to the Altynkol station of Panfilov district of Almaty region which started its journey on November 1 from Astana in the framework of the 25th anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan Zharkent residents and members of state institutions city guests and representatives of the regional Assembly of People of Kazakhstan met with the guests of honor by the traditions of Kazakh people The solemn meeting was opened by akim B.Abduldaev who congratulated on the 25th anniversary of Independence of the Republic of Kazakhstan and wished to the event participants a success The head of Staff of the train "Tauelsіz Kazakhstan" the famous scientist A.Alpeisov in his speech focused on the main goals and objectives of the action shared his impressions of the blessed Zharkent region expressed his opinion about the achievements of the region Kulyash Aytzhanova thanked all the guests and expressed her motherly blessing to the event participants as well as expressed gratitude to the wise and far-sighted policy of the President due to which Kazakhstan had achieved success in all spheres of activity A fiery speech about friendship of the fraternal peoples and about the world inter-ethnic harmony was made by Rakhimzhan Tohtahunov The ceremonial meeting was attended by about 400 people The assembly hall of the Nurkent school chaired by the head of the secretariat the deputy chairman of the Assembly of People of Kazakhstan of Almaty region G.Tursynbay held the meeting of the train participants with the local population The number of participants was 200 persons As part of the action of the train "Tauelsіz Kazakhstan"  dedicated to the 25th anniversary of Kazakhstan Independence in the new town Nurkent built for railroadmen scientific and creative intellectuals held a public reception of citizens more than 1,000 people participated in the Republican action  327 people were examined in the rural hospital Penzhim and were consulted In the field of education 50 people were consulted at the secondary school of Penzhim village The main issues raised during the consultation - the trinity of languages 32 people were consulted on the issue of agriculture business administration and loan obtaining 14 people referred on the issue of social protection they were interested in the retirement and benefits 17 people referred at the reception of the district branch of the party "Nur Otan" Having completed its work at the Altynkol station on December 7 the train "Tauelsіz Kazakhstan" went to the city of Taldykorgan