A Kazakhstan man who went to China to support his mother in a land dispute has suffered abuse from police, leaving him in an altered mental state after he said he had been poisoned and beaten, according to a Kazakhstan-based rights group and the man’s family.
Zhenis Kanat, 34, emigrated from China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang to neighboring Kazakhstan as a child, and became a citizen of that country, where he now has a wife and two children.
But his mother, who stayed in Xinjiang’s Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture where Kanat was raised, was in a long-running dispute with local authorities over the appropriation of the family’s land.
Kanat had traveled back to his birthplace in Ili’s Kaba county to support her and to help her get much-needed medical attention after getting beaten by police.
“This gentleman’s name is Kanat. He called his wife ... from Kaba county, Xinjiang, saying that the county authorities were trying to poison him and kill him,” Serikzhan Bilash, founder of the Kazakh-based rights group Atajurt told RFA Mandarin in a recent interview, citing a video call with Kanat’s family in Kazakhstan.
“He called 120 [China’s emergency number] repeatedly from his hotel, asking for emergency medical treatment, but wasn’t given it,” Serikzhan said.
He then got himself to the local hospital, where he was accused by police of “assaulting a police officer” and “causing trouble,” then taken to the county detention center.
A video clip shared with RFA Mandarin by his family shows him warning that his life is in danger.
“Help me! The Kaba county government officials poisoned my food!” he says in Chinese.
Repeated calls to the Kaba county police department, the county government offices, the office of the county police chief and the Chinese Consulate in Almaty rang unanswered during office hours on Feb. 12 and 13.
Kazakhs in China
Official figures show that there are around 1.5 million Kazakhs in China, mostly concentrated in and around the Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture.
China once welcomed Kazakhs who wished to relocate from Kazakhstan, but Beijing’s mass targeting of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang has prompted many Kazakhs with Chinese nationality to head back in the other direction.
Chinese restrictions on the movement of ethnic Kazakhs with Chinese nationality to neighboring Kazakhstan have sparked cross-border tensions in recent years.
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While the circumstances surrounding his release from detention remain unclear, Kanat eventually arrived back at the Jimunai border crossing at 11:20 a.m. on Feb. 11, his sister Atigul told RFA Mandarin.
But there was something very wrong with her brother.
“He didn’t recognize my father or any of our family,” she said, adding that Kanat appeared to think his family were his persecutors, repeatedly promising “to cooperate.”
“He was terrified, and kept saying, ‘Don’t touch me, I have no family, I have no family,’ and then he cried.”
She shared a video clip of her brother lying on the ground, repeatedly saying in terror: “Don’t come near me.”
The family has also been targeted by unidentified individuals who threatened that “an accident” would befall them if they didn’t hand over all of their communication devices, Atigul said.
‘Covered in blood’
An associate of the family who goes by a single name Nurbek said Kanat had also been “covered in blood” when he got back home.
“Kanat got back last night, and he was covered in blood,” Nurbek said. “He was beaten by more than a dozen auxiliary police officers [in China].”
“He was dizzy and losing consciousness, and he’s now in the hospital,” he said. “The Chinese police poisoned him.”
Authorities in Kaba county seized 150 mu (10 hectares) of fertile land from Kanat’s family in 2012, and registered it in someone else’s name, according to Serikzhan.
“Kanat’s family disagreed with this, so local officials brought 30 armed personnel, including armed police stationed in the area, to occupy their land,” he said. “They beat and kicked Kanat’s mother, causing kidney damage.”
Kanat’s mother’s health has since deteriorated sharply as her kidneys fail, and Kanat had hoped to get her the medical treatment she needed, as well as pursuing a complaint against the local authorities, during his recent trip to China.
But he started showing “abnormal” behavior shortly after his arrival in Kaba county, according to his mother, who spoke with Atajurt’s Serikzhan about a strange phone call with her son in which he “laughed inexplicably” then suddenly hung up the phone.
He also called his wife back in Kazakhstan and boasted that he had survived a beating by more than a dozen police officers.
“I must be pretty powerful, because more than a dozen people beat me, and I survived,” he told her, in a tone that was totally unfamiliar to his wife, who described him as “a very serious person” normally.
Kazakh doctor Yerkenbek Nuraken, who treated Kanat, said his symptoms appeared similar to those of schizophrenia, although a final diagnosis has yet to be made.
“The extent of the poisoning can only be determined through blood tests, but that can’t be done here in Kazakhstan,” he said. “We’ll have to go overseas, to Germany, to discover the cause.”
He said unidentified individuals had also threatened the family in their home, and that Atajurt had hired a security guard to protect them.
Kanat’s family is now trying to raise funds to send him to Almaty for treatment. They have also called on the Chinese government for compensation.
Translated by Luisetta Mudie. Edited by Malcolm Foster.