Current Tensions in Xinjiang-China

[rubyjackass]

True. Be factual and not overly sensitive.

The claims of the exiled Uighur lady were only that the issue STARTED as a peaceful protest. The body count clearly says its not just that. As long as there is no verifiable report, nothing can be said for or against any group. Similarly the point raised by Kasrkin is also important. There is simply no evidence as to what the involvement of the state forces were. Honestly we dont know what to believe especially when the news is so controlled.

Also I dont understand the concept of information blockade that came into force. May be that helps in case of terrorist attacks. But does it, when we are talking about riots? Somebody care to explain? In fact with proper information channels people can be told where the police have maintained secure places for them.


I have not seen a video with Uighur views from China so far.
Please post links if you have any.

 

[jxzz]

Video and text source from China Daily. Search Google news "Islamic leader condemns Xinjiang riots" to get original source

Video in Chinese and Uighur language,
English text:

Islamic leader condemns Xinjiang riots
(chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-08 01:10
The deadly violence in Urumqi stirred by separatist rioters that has killed 156 people violated the tenets of the Holy Quran that preaches peace and harmony, a religious leader said Tuesday at a press conference.

Sporadic conflicts and protests continued as of Tuesday afternoon in the riot-hit capital city of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, where separatist troublemakers took vandalism spree on the streets, shed hacks randomly on passers-by and torched vehicles in blaze since Sunday night.

"Uygurs are well known for their hospitality. Those rioters are not representatives of the Uygur people," said Abudurekefu Akhond, member of the standing committee of the China Islamic Association.

"The Islam creed advocates peace and harmony", he added. "Different ethnic groups should show respect to and learn from each other with mutual understanding."

 

[jxzz]

Senior Muslim leader condemns violence in Xinjiang
2009-07-07 18:52 BJT

Source: CCTV

A senior Islamic leader has condemned the violence in Xinjiang. Imam Chen Guangyuan, head of China Islamic Association, said rioters who took part in the violence in Urumqi do not represent the spirit of Islam and their criminal behavior is not what Muslims should do. Imam Chen called on China's Muslims to unite and firmly against the violence, maintain social stability and the country's territorial integrity.

Imam Chen called on China's Muslims to unite and firmly against the
violence, maintain social stability and the country's territorial integrity.

China's Muslim society condemns the violence in Xinjiang.

Imam Chen Guangyuan says Islam is a religion of peace and Muslims pursue harmony and unity. The rioters' activities are only concerned with separating China and hampering its development.

"After the incident on July 5, we have received many calls from Muslims around China, strongly condemning the violence and firmly opposing separation activities. They also sent their condolences to the victims of the violence," said Imam Chen Guangyuan.

Imam Chen said their behavior cannot be tolerated in a harmonious society. He called on the country's Muslims not to believe in rumors and stay away from illegal activities.

"I hope Muslims uphold the tradition of Islam and maintain China's territorial integrity and economic development. We must unite to condemn and stop violence. We completely agree with law enforcement's strong and swift actions to curb crimes," said Imam Chen Guangyuan.

So far, the violence in Xinjiang has caused over 150 people dead and more than 1,000 injured.

 

[oct605032048]

The one thing no one seems to have raised is who the dead actually are.

156 dead 800 injured by most sources but the goverment isnt saying who they were.

The Han posting here are crying for blood but has any one stopped to think that most of those casualties are probably Uighurs?

There seem to be lots of reports of Han chinese beeing beaten and reobbed, stores looted or cars burnt and yes these things are wrong but no reports i have seen of Uighurs killing any one.

1000 protesters with sticks rocks and knives, 20,000 police with automatic weapons and APC's. If the killing of 2 Uighurs caused a riot i guess the goverment would want to keep the killing of over 100 rather quiet.

The riot suddenly broke in the center of the city of urumqi in which over 70% its population is Han, and the victims were people walking home or passengers on buses. i can't rule out the possibility that there may be uiger people injured during the deadly 3 hours, but anyone with common sense could figure out that most people dead or killed by the attackers were not the uigher.

as the question about the vidio evidence of the procedure of killing, well , i think you are too critical about the press and the reporters in xinjiang, they are not hired to wait and take photos about the procedure of killing all day long along the streets.

it was just too quickly everyone just run for their lives. besides, the lack of direct evidence dosen't prevent some western media to write about what they believe .

 

[oct605032048]

Folks, the Uighurs are not just attacking Han. They also attacking muslim Hui. Is this so called "doing big"?

This is a complex issue and it appears that Chinese government hasn't been effective in resolving this for decades.

yeah in my opinion, the bigger problem is that the Han people may lose their faith about the govn and just pour their anger and revenge back. that maybe the last thing that uigher people would like to see, and obviously kadeer and her friends dosen't care at all.

they are safe under the shelter of US and erope.

 

[oct605032048]

Yes.. I work in Beijing.
Times are changing, but the situation has remained same. Last year before the olympics the Chinese government promised more press freedom. For a while it was true. But once the olympics were over, things went back to normal and in some cases even became worse. My cable operator stopped airing CNN, HBO and other international channels. The only english channel I now get is CCTV9 which is just a government mouthpiece and the programs are too boring and predictable. No foreigner watches it.
A Australian TV reporter friend of mine had to wait 1 month to get permission to cover Sichuan earthquake, by which time he dropped the idea of doing it. He went back in frustration after 1 year of trying to cover the news here.

well not everyone in china likes the party and her foolish propergnda.
Sence some people can read english and have chances to visit the web site of bbc
or something like that, by comparing what was writen in these articles and what is happenning just in their homeland, they need not to be a doctor to draw the conclusion that bbc cnn etc. sucks.

 

[jxzz]

Vassnti:

Most dead of 156 are Han, not Uighurs. Governments have not released this figure, however, neutral source can confirm this. Here is UK source:

Peter Foster UK Telegraph blog from ground in Urumqi:
Uighur unrest: not another Tiananmen
I can not post URL, please search Google for "Peter Foster".


Uighur unrest: not another Tiananmen


By Peter Foster World Last updated: July 7th, 2009

43 Comments Comment on this article

This from Urumqi in Xinjiang where I awoke this morning to the sound of army boots pounding on the city’s main People’s Square as squads of Chinese riot police and other paramilitary performed their morning drills.

A veneer of calm hangs over the city today despite the heavy presence of police and armoured cars on the streets, however even at this early stage I think it’s safe to predict that it is going to take a long time for the wounds of Sunday’s events to heal in this ethnically divided society.

Beijing has moved swiftly not only to calm the streets but also to control the reporting environment, corralling the large international media presence in a single hotel.

They’ve done this not by force, but by the simple expediency of limiting internet access to a single location (a hotel off the People’s Square), and like animals on the plain who graduate to the last waterhole in times of drought, the world’s journalists have had little choice but to congregate here.

Long-standing China commentators have been astonished at the speed at which Beijing has moved to seize the news agenda on this event, releasing casualty figures by lunchtime on Monday when in previous situations (the Tibet riots in March last year for example) it’s taken 24 hours for official media to even acknowledge that any event took place at all.

So why the speed this time? Are we witnessing a sudden opening up of China’s information environment, a media-savvy change of heart on the part of China’s rulers who only last month were pressing for installation of Green Dam internet censorship software on every computer in China?

I think that is unlikely. The logical, if more cynical, reason is that on this one China doesn’t have a great deal to hide.

There was a presumption among the foreign media - made from afar as correspondents scrambled to get to Urumqi - that most of the 156 victims of Sunday’s riot were Uighurs. The implication being that they had been killed by security forces - another Tiananmen, if you will.

This never quite stacked up, as very few witnesses reported that the police had opened fire. In fact most reported the use of batons, electric prods and tear gas and other non-lethal methods to disperse the riot.

And why, if security forces had been responsible for the bulk of the deaths, would China be facilitating such unprecedented access to hospitals, holding press conferences (planned for later today) and allowing reporters to tour the city.

It now appears - and I base this on reports from the first government-organised tour of Urumqi’s hospitals yesterday - that most of the injured were Han Chinese with stab or head wounds inflicted during the riots.

According to those reports of 274 patients being treated in the People’s hospital 233 were Han - mostly suffering from stab and head wounds - 29 Uighur and 15 from the Hui Muslim minority.

Many details remain to be confirmed, not least whether police actions in breaking up an initially peaceful demonstration helped provoke the violence.

However if those numbers are correct - and I’ll working to firm up details in reports today - the next phase is to see how China handles that potentially highly inflammatory piece of news at such a critical moment for Uighur-Han relations.

 

[oct605032048]

They owe their fellow citizens an apology.

 

[BSF]

well not everyone in china likes the party and her foolish propergnda.
Sence some people can read english and have chances to visit the web site of bbc
or something like that, by comparing what was writen in these articles and what is happenning just in their homeland, they need not to be a doctor to draw the conclusion that bbc cnn etc. sucks.

Ya....I am quite sure CCTV is great.

it was just too quickly everyone just run for their lives. besides, the lack of direct evidence dosen't prevent some western media to write about what they believe .

Neither does it prevent you from writing.!!!

the western media never change their bias to china, like "The leopard cannot change his spots" or "A fox may turn gray,but never kind"

Did PRC change any "spots".?
The Olympics were given to them on the condition that they will improve their human rights track records...what happened ?

"People who live in glass houses should not throw stones at others"

 

[quriosity]

i see han people & uighur people look almost same... i found they all mongoloids...

Mongoloid - Peoples in the Mongoloid race

Mongoloid - Han Chinese

The Han Chinese are by far the most populous Mongoloid "group"; indeed, they are often said to be the largest single group of any race. However, they are really not a truly coherent, single ethnicity. The concept of a unified group of Han Chinese is more so a cultural anthropological concept rather than an biological anthropological one. Studies have shown that the North Chinese are closer to Northern Mongoloids such as Koreans and Japanese, while the South Chinese are closer to their immediate Southern counterparts like the Lao and Vietnamese. However there is also much evidence to support that the modern Han Chinese have descended from the south, due to the predominance of the O3/M122-type Y-gene, which traces its origin to Southwest China.


Mongoloid - Turkic Mongoloids

In Central Asia, the Uzbeks, the Uighur, the Kyrgyz, and the Kazakhs show strong Turkic Mongoloid elements, which would make them the Western cousins of the Mongolians. However, among them, and especially among Uzbeks and Uyghurs in particular, one may notice a continuum of physical types that ranges from Mongoloid to Europoid Caucasoid. This tends to also be true among the modern Tatars (Bulgars) and Bashkirs. Historically, the Huns and the ancient Tatars have been considered to belong to the Mongoloid family. The Turkmen, while are still Central Asian Turkic-Mongoloids, have mixed heavily with Caucasoid neighbours to the west, and many of the even more westerly Turkic-speakers, such as those in Azerbaijan appear to have little or no visible Mongoloid ancestry, although many may have less visible Mongoloid features. Turks in Turkey have an amount of Mongoloid features that is related to the amount of actual Turkic ancestry present in the individuals considered. This is variable in Turkey due to the varied ancestry of most of the population. While many scholars explain the variablity of the physical characteristics of Turkic Mongoloids as the result of intermixing with Caucasoids, some propose that there may have at one point been a distinct Turkic Mongoloid group, with particular and distinct physical characteristics.

Mongoloid: Encyclopedia II - Mongoloid - Peoples in the Mongoloid race

why so big ethnic fighting...?

 

[BSF]

They owe their fellow citizens an apology.

Who apologies to who?
The hans apologies to Ughirs or the Ughirs apologies to hans...or do you want the Islamist leaders to apologize to PRC ?
Please make your statement clear

 

[jxzz]

They owe their fellow citizens an apology.

Terrorists won't apologize to anyone. They kill.

 

[quriosity]

Who apologies to who?
The hans apologies to Ughirs or the Ughirs apologies to hans...or do you want the Islamist leaders to apologize to PRC ?
Please make your statement clear

but... han chinese are not muslims...

Hui people, Uyghur people, Kazak, Dongxiang people, Kyrgyz, Salar, Tajiks of Xinjiang, Uzbeks, Bonan, Chinese Tatars, and Tibetan Muslims... are muslims...

Ethnic Groups

Muslims live in every region in China. The highest concentrations are found in the northwest provinces of Xinjiang, Gansu, and Ningxia, with significant populations also found throughout Yunnan province in southwest China and Henan Province in central China. Of China’s 55 officially recognized minority peoples, ten groups are predominately Muslim. The largest groups in descending order are Hui (9.8 million in year 2000 census, or 48% of the officially tabulated number of Muslims), Uyghur (8.4 million, 41%), Kazakh (1.25 million , 6.1%), Dongxiang (514,000, 2.5%), Kyrgyz (161,000), Salar (105,000), Tajik (41,000), Uzbeks, Bonan (17,000), and Tatar (5,000). However, individual members of traditionally Muslim ethnic groups may profess other religions or none at all. Additionally, Tibetan Muslims are officially classified along with the Tibetan people, unlike the Hui who are classified as a separate people, even though they are indistinguishable from the Han. Muslims live predominantly in the areas that border Central Asia, Tibet and Mongolia, i.e Xinjiang, Ningxia, Gansu and Qinghai, which is known as the "Quran Belt".

Islam in China - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[oct605032048]

dear BSF

1 i don't like some progress of cctv and what's more i sometimes take the news reported by cctv as a new news for it represent the thoughts of the authorty. but it is not the point of my post . Yes we need a more free press but Save your words on cctv though we may share the same attitude towards these magnus press and i'm not the one who throw stones.

2 the less-free environment of press in china dosen't automatically garantee that all the west reports are correct . Especially when it comes to the report in china. because we get imformation not only from the TV but also from other souses. the net, though it is been censored it provide an pretty fast an free way of knowledge; the eyes of mine and my friends， school mates，collegues， relatives and so on。 of course we know what happens here better than the one set by the coffee machine in building of BBC 10 thousand miles away. Please do not hold these ideas that all the people in china are stupid enough too be cheated neither by the party or by other institutes such as XCC and CXX.

 

[jxzz]

Most likely, lots of Hui muslims were killed in riots too.

Based on the report, terrorists used face and language to pick on Han to kill. By that method, Hui would be killed or injured together with Han in Urumqi because Hui look like Han and Hui usually do not speak Uighur language either. Hui typically live in citiesand usually are good at business. Most likely Hui are there too in Urumqi.