Scores Killed in Clashes in Western China
BEIJING — The Chinese state news agency reported Monday that at least 129 people were killed and 816 injured when rioters clashed with the police in a regional capital in western China after days of rising tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese.
The casualty toll, if confirmed, would make this the deadliest outbreak of violence in China in many years.
The rioting broke out Sunday afternoon in a large market area of Urumqi, the capital of the vast, restive desert region of Xinjiang, and lasted for several hours before riot police officers and paramilitary or military troops locked down the Uighur quarter of the city, according to witnesses and photographs of the riot.
At least 1,000 rioters took to the streets, throwing stones at the police and setting vehicles on fire. Plumes of smoke billowed into the sky, while police officers used fire hoses and batons to beat back rioters and detain Uighurs who appeared to be leading the protest, witnesses said.
The casualty numbers appeared to be murky and shifting on Monday. A one-line report by Xinhua, the state news agency, giving the estimate of 129 dead and 816 injured attributed the numbers to the regional police department, but did not quote officials by name and did not have any details. Earlier, Xinhua had reported that three civilians and one police officer had been killed.
One regional official reached by telephone put the death toll at 105 and said at least 800 people had been injured. One American who watched the rioting at its height said he did not see people being killed or corpses in the streets, though he said he did see Uighurs shoving or kicking a few Han Chinese. Images of the rioting on state television showed some bloody people lying in the streets and cars burning.
Dozens of Uighur men were led into police stations on Sunday evening with their hands behind their backs and shirts pulled over their heads, one witness said. Early Monday, the local government announced a curfew banning all traffic in the city until 8 p.m.
The riot was the largest ethnic clash in China since the Tibetan uprising of March 2008, and perhaps the biggest protest in Xinjiang in years. Like the Tibetan unrest, it highlighted the deep-seated frustrations felt by some ethnic minorities in western China over the policies of the Communist Party, and how that can quickly turn into ethnic violence. Last year, in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital, at least 19 people were killed, most of them Han civilians, according to government statistics.
Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim group, resent rule by the Han Chinese, and Chinese security forces have tried to keep oil-rich Xinjiang under tight control since the 1990s, when cities there were struck by waves of protests, riots and bombings. Last summer, attacks on security forces took place in several cities in Xinjiang; the Chinese government blamed separatist groups.
Early Monday, Chinese officials said the latest riots were started by Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur human rights advocate who had been imprisoned in China and now lives in Washington, Xinhua reported. As with the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader, Chinese officials often blame Ms. Kadeer for ethnic unrest; she denies the charges.
The clashes on Sunday began when the police confronted a protest march held by Uighurs to demand a full government investigation of a brawl between Uighur and Han workers that erupted in Guangdong Province overnight on June 25 and June 26. The brawl took place in a toy factory and left 2 Uighurs dead and 118 people injured. The police later arrested a bitter ex-employee of the factory who had ignited the fight by starting a rumor that 6 Uighur men had raped 2 Han women at the work site, Xinhua reported.
There was also a rumor circulating on Sunday in Urumqi that a Han man had killed a Uighur in the city earlier in the day, said Adam Grode, an English teacher living in the neighborhood where the rioting took place.
“This is just crazy,” Mr. Grode said by telephone Sunday night. “There was a lot of tear gas in the streets, and I almost couldn’t get back to my apartment. There’s a huge police presence.”
Mr. Grode said he saw a few Han civilians being harassed by Uighurs. Rumors of Uighurs attacking Han Chinese spread quickly through parts of Urumqi, adding to the panic. A worker at the Texas Restaurant, a few hundred yards from the site of the rioting, said her manager had urged the restaurant workers to stay inside. Xinhua reported few details of the riot on Sunday night. It said that “an unknown number of people gathered Sunday afternoon” in Urumqi, “attacking passers-by and setting fire to vehicles.”
Uighurs are the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang but are a minority in Urumqi, where Han Chinese make up more than 70 percent of the population of two million or so. The Chinese government has encouraged Han migration to the city and other parts of Xinjiang, fueling resentment among the Uighurs. Urumqi is a deeply segregated city, with Han Chinese there rarely venturing into the Uighur quarter.
The Uighur neighborhood is centered in a warren of narrow alleyways, food markets and a large shopping area called the Grand Bazaar or the Erdaoqiao Market, where the rioting reached its peak on Sunday.
Mr. Grode, who lives in an apartment there, said he went outside when he first heard commotion around 6 p.m. He saw hundreds of Uighurs in the streets; that quickly swelled to more than 1,000, he said.
Police officers soon arrived. Around 7 p.m., protesters began hurling rocks and vegetables from the market at the police, Mr. Grode said. Traffic had ground to a halt. An hour later, as the riot surged toward the center of the market, troops in green uniforms and full riot gear showed up, as did armored vehicles. Chinese government officials often deploy the People’s Armed Police, a paramilitary force, to quell riots.
By midnight, Mr. Grode said, some of the armored vehicles had begun to leave, but bursts of gunfire could still be heard.
Huang Yuanxi contributed research.----------------
China orders curfews, suspends internet amid Uighur tension (Extra)
Beijing - At least two more major cities in China's far western region of Xinjiang have imposed curfews and several cities deployed extra police following rioting that killed more than 140 people in the regional capital, sources said on Monday.
'There are about two-thirds more police on the streets than usual,' an employee at the Qianhai Hotel in Kashgar, China's westernmost city, told the German Press Agency dpa by telephone.
Many extra police vehicles were patrolling Kashgar's streets and a three-day curfew was in force, said the employee, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
'We don't have any unrest here, only a curfew,' said a receptionist at another Kashgar hotel. 'If you want to come here, I suggest you wait for one week.'
Uighur protesters clashed with police and attacked members of China's Han majority in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital, late Sunday.
The government in Xinjiang's Aksu city also said more police were deployed on Monday, while a local resident said soldiers and police were patrolling the city.
The city of Yining in north-western Xinjiang also imposed a curfew, a local resident said, following report by US-based Radio Free Asia that Uighur activists had called via the internet for protests in other cities on Monday.
Internet services were suspended on Monday in the regional capital, Urumqi, a resident said, and many Xinjiang websites were apparently taken down, including those of the Kashgar and Yining governments.
The governments of Kashgar and Yining could not be contacted by telephone.
People contacted in the three cities and the southern city of Hotan all said they had seen no protests on Sunday or Monday.
An employee at Yining's Hongfu Hotel said the city was 'safe' but said anyone wanting to stay at her hotel would face strict security checks.
Many police were patrolling Yining, and only a few taxis and mostly empty buses were on the roads, she said.
Read more: http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1487987.php/
China_orders_curfews_suspends_internet_amid_Uighur_tension__Extra__#ixzz0KU9EgfQD8C
Backgrounder: Previous unrests in China's Xinjiang regionBEIJING, July 6, (Xinhua) -- Backgrounder: Previous ...
Recalling the nightmare: witnesses' account of Xinjiang riot XINHUAFiremen put out a fire ...
Commentary: Riot a catastrophe for Xinjiang XINHUASunday's deadly riot in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region bruised the beautiful city of Urumqi and shocked the world, barely 16 months after the nightmarish Lhasa violence that still clings to many Chinese minds.
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