Uyghurs in Forced Labor To Grow China’s Almonds

By Radio Free Asia
29 March 2007

Chinese authorities in the northwestern Xinjiang region are forcing tens of thousands of ethnic Uyghurs into producing almonds for the county government without pay, local residents and one official say.

The labor recruiting drive began in Yarkand county near Kashgar on March 6, and it requires every Uyghur household to send one person and a donkey cart to help in a massive expansion of the region’s traditional almond industry.

The wife of a village official in Yaqa Eriq hamlet who answered the phone confirmed the existence of the unpaid labor conscription drive, which is known in the local Uyghur language as “hasha.”

“It’s been seven or eight days since the hasha started,” she told RFA’s Uyghur service. “It’s in the river valley between Yaqa Eriq and the Zarapshan River.”

'A lot of people'
“There are many places that have to be cultivated. So there are a lot of people there,” she said, confirming reports that around 100,000 people had been forced to take part.

We are now digging pits, and burying dung in the pits...They said 10 days at first. But they say it may take 20 days now.

Uyghur farmer in Yarkand county
Asked if the laborers would get paid for their work, she said: “Probably not,” adding that those who didn’t obey the order would be subject to “criticism” from local officials.

A secretary in the Yarkand county government confirmed that there was a major cultivation project in the area. “Yes, they are cultivating land there,” he said. “An almond base.” He said the project was being overseen by the deputy secretary of the county Communist Party committee, Rishat Osman.

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