China blames exiles for Uighur riot

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China's government has blamed Uighur exiles for inciting a riot in the country's western Xinjiang region that it says left more than 100 people dead.

The official Xinhua news agency said the deaths came in the city of Urumqi on Sunday after a protest against the government's handling of an industrial dispute turned violent.

Xinhua said rioters burned and smashed vehicles, and fought with police, while state broadcaster CCTV showed footage of people throwing rocks at police and overturning a police car.

Xinhua had reported earlier that four people died in the clashes, including one police officer.

But follow-up reports put the number at 129.

Uighur exile groups have said they believe some Uighurs may also have died in the clashes, while dozens are thought to have been arrested as police cracked down on those they believe were behind the protests.

Xinhua said the situation in the city was "under control" on Monday, with police reported to be out in force.

One local resident contacted by the Reuters news agency said Urumqi, situated 3,200km west of Beijing, was "basically under martial law".

Xinhua said local officials had ordered traffic off the streets in parts of the city to ensure there was no fresh unrest.

"The facts demonstrate this was controlled and instigated from abroad," an unnamed official said of the riot, according to Xinhua.

The report also said the "unrest was masterminded by the World Uighur Congress" led by Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur businesswoman who was jailed for years in China before being released into exile in the US.

"This was a crime of violence that was pre-meditated and organised," Xinhua said.


'Pent-up anger'

China has blamed ethnic separatists and Muslim extremists for stoking unrest in Xinjiang over the past decade.

But critics of Beijing say many Uighurs are angry at what they see as the growing dominance in the region of Han Chinese – China's main ethnic group.

Uighur exile groups have adamantly rejected the Chinese government claim of a plot, saying Sunday's riot was an outpouring of pent-up anger over government policies.

"They're blaming us as a way to distract the Uighurs' attention from the discrimination and oppression that sparked this protest," Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uighur Congress in Sweden, told Reuters.

"It began as a peaceful assembly. There were thousands of people shouting to stop ethnic discrimination, demanding an explanation... They are tired of suffering in silence."

In the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic games, Xinjiang was hit by several deadly attacks the authorities said were the work of "terrorists".

But human rights groups and Uighur activists say China exaggerates the threat to justify harsh controls restricting peaceful political demands.

Al Jazeera English - Asia-Pacific - China blames exiles for Uighur riot

 

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China's Uighurs face fasting restrictions



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Don't twist facts


Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan would be well advised to take back his remarks on what has happened in China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Mr Erdogan's description of the riots in Xinjiang as "a kind of genocide" is an irresponsible and groundless accusation. The fact that 137 of the 184 persons killed in the riots are Han Chinese speaks volumes for the nature of the event.

There is no doubt that the riots were plotted by Uygur separatists outside the country to split the unity of different ethnic groups in the region. The rioters just attempted to sow seeds of animosity between the Uygur and the Han Chinese, which they expected would carry forward their conspiracy of separating Xinjiang from China.

Turning a blind eye to what the Chinese government has done to restore order in Urumqi, Mr Erdogan said "we have difficulty understanding how China's leadership can remain a spectator in the face of these events".

Chinese leaders are the last people who want to see happenings like these in the largest ethnic autonomous region. The harmony of different ethnic groups has been the top priority of what both the central and local governments have been making unremitting efforts to consolidate for many years. And, so has been the steady improvement of living standards of ethnic minority groups all over the country.

These are evidenced by the preferential policies of the central government for ethnic minority groups. For example, the family planning policy applies only to the Han Chinese and never to ethnic minority groups. Candidates for national college entrance examinations from ethnic minority groups get an extra 20 points for their enrollment.

It is quite common in the increasingly globalized world for people from different ethnic groups to live together in the same land. So it is insensitive and ridiculous to interpret the co-inhabitance of the Uygur and Han Chinese in Xinjiang as the Han people's assimilation of the Uygur ethnic group.

Actually, the Uygur people have also spread across the country during the past three decades, in pursuit of their fortune. It is the economic reform that has made such migration possible. So how can Mr Erdogan accuse the Chinese government of assimilating the Uygur ethnic group?

It is the rioters' venting of racial hatred, the atrocities committed by them and the rumors spread by separatists that have created misunderstanding between the Uygur and Han communities. As a result, people from both communities suffered great loss of lives and property. Obviously, such turmoil is in the interest of neither community. Nor is it in the interest of the region's economy. More than 80,000 tourists cancelled or delayed their trips to the region last week.

The efforts the central and local governments have been making to restore order and clear the misunderstanding between the Uygur and Han communities are what local residents of different ethnic groups really want and need for leading a peaceful and happy life.

Mr Erdogan's remarks, which constitute interference in China's internal affairs, are the last thing the Uygur and Han Chinese would find helpful when they are looking forward to lasting peace.

(China Daily July 14, 2009)

---------- Post added at 09:19 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:17 AM ----------

Biased Xinjiang riot coverage refuted


The Chinese have bombarded some foreign media's biased reports on the July 5 riot in Xinjiang, saying such practices have violated the principles of journalism and turned the Chinese readers off.

In his letter to Xinhua Monday, a Chinese reporter said he wished to discuss with his Western colleagues the standards of fair and objective reporting.

"As reporters, we're supposed to tell the truth and clarify the when, where, who, what, why and how for our readers," said the reporter, who has worked for 11 years as a journalist.

He cited a news photo that appeared at London Evening Standard website on July 7, with caption reading "Blood and defiance: two women comfort each other after being attacked by police".

"I'm all too familiar with this photo, which was cropped from CCTV's news footage of the riot scenes. CCTV reporters found out they had been assaulted by the rioters," he said. "Did anyone at London Evening Standard interview them?"

On July 8, the website removed the picture and caption at its readers' protest, but a story headlined "The women invoking Tiananmen's spirit" continued to describe the Xinjiang riot as "the crackdown on members of the Muslim minority by Chinese authorities".

"If such bias angered me, then a Washington Post story published on July 10 about 'the right way to help the Uygurs' simply left me in hallucination, as if Xinjiang were somewhere in the States," he said, pointing to the author's bossy comments on the U.S. government's Xinjiang policy and call for stronger support for Rebiya Kadeer and her World Uygur Congress, which the Chinese believe were behind the Xinjiang riot and a series of protests at Chinese embassies worldwide.

DOUBLE STANDARDS CHALLENGED

The Beijing Daily published a bylined article Sunday that questioned some Western media's "double standards" in the Xinjiang riot coverage.

"Some Western reporters described the apparently criminal act as 'peaceful protest' sparked by 'ethnic discrimination'", wrote the author Qin Feng.

He said these reporters ignored the plain facts, took sides with the desperados and even helped justify their criminal acts. "They have violated the principles of journalism and apparently applied 'double standards' in covering the Xinjiang riot and similar violence in some Western countries in the past."

He referred to the 2005 unrest in the suburbs of Paris and the Los Angeles riots of 1992. "Not a single media report called these riots a result of prolonged ethnic discrimination, and not a single politician advocated for 'peace' and 'rights' against the governments' use of troops to restore order."

"Media reports need to be objective and balanced," said Qin. "As reporters we should tell the truth instead of being driven by prejudice or sympathizing with those who sabotage social order."

WSJ REPORT REFUTED

An opinion piece entitled I Don't Read the Wall Street Journal Any More has spread rapidly among China's Internet users since its electronic edition was published Saturday to refute the journal's 'biased' reports on the July 5 riot in Xinjiang.

The piece by veteran People's Daily reporter Ding Gang cited the journal's Asian edition, which referred to the Uygur people as protesters and the Han people as "mobs", and claimed the riot was caused by unfair treatment of the Uygur people.

"At first I thought it was the same old bias from our Western colleagues, but the image of Rebiya Kadeer and her bylined story The Real Uygur Story on the journal's website on July 8 was totally unacceptable," he said.

"The journal's editors may as well defend themselves, saying this is balanced and fair journalism, but would it have been balanced and fair for them, had any Chinese media commented on the Sept. 11 terrorist attack against New York and Washington in 2001, saying "New York Revenge -- Muslim minorities fight U.S. hegemonism?

"Please keep in mind: those mobs, who wouldn't even let pass children, are terrorists by the standards of all nations governed by law.

"Starting from today, I've stopped bookmarking its website and have marked incoming mails from the journal as spam," wrote Ding.

Ding, who worked as resident correspondent in Stockholm, Brussels and New York and was among the first Chinese reporters to enter the Sept. 11 terrorist attack site, said he had read the journal for more than a decade.

"The journal may not care if it loses one reader, but I do care about my own dignity and that of the Chinese nation.

"Frankly speaking, the journal's China reports are increasingly disappointing in recent years, some of which are biased and ignorant. I didn't unsubscribe it, thinking its financial reports and analysis are still worthy somehow.

"Its reports on the July 5 riot in Urumqi, however, are simply unbearable: This time, the journal has gone beyond bias and ignorance to blatantly take sides with the terrorists, and serve as their spokesperson."

Ding's opinion, in Chinese, was published in the print edition of the Global Times Friday and was quoted by hundreds of websites Saturday and Sunday. Most of these websites, however, deactivated readers comments.

The deadliest riot in Xinjiang in six decades has killed 184 people and injured 1,680.

(Xinhua News Agency July 13, 2009)

 

[applesauce]

hmm they could always say "yes its a genocide... a genocide of the han people, we will not long tolerate this" and ... begin to really crack down on separatists