who were killed? where is your duty?indian media?
Riots Break Out in Western China Amid Ethnic Tension
Associated Press
A photograph taken by a local citizen showed protesters gathering in Urumqi, China, on Sunday.
Sign in to Recommend
Sign In to E-Mail
Print
Reprints
ShareClose
LinkedinDiggFacebookMixxMySpaceYahoo! BuzzPermalinkBy EDWARD WONG
Published: July 5, 2009
BEIJING At least 1,000 rioters clashed with the police on Sunday in a regional capital in western China after days of rising tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese, according to witnesses and photographs of the riot.
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. The rioters threw stones at the police and set vehicles on fire, sending plumes of smoke into the sky, while police officers used firehoses and batons to beat back rioters and detain Uighurs who appeared to be leaders of the protest, witnesses said.
At least three Han Chinese were killed in the rioting and 20 people were injured, according to Xinhua, the official news agency. Dozens of Uighur men were led into nearby police stations 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.
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.
Uighurs taking part in the riot on Sunday were furious over an ethnic brawl between Uighur and Han workers that broke out on June 26 in a toy factory in Guangdong and that resulted in the deaths of two Uighurs. A total of 116 people were injured. The police later arrested an ex-employee of the factory who had ignited the brawl by starting a rumor that six Uighur men had raped two Han women at the work site, Xinhua reported.
There was also a rumor going around on Sunday in Urumqi that a Han man had killed a Uighur earlier that day in the city, said Adam Grode, an English teacher and former Fulbright scholar living in the neighborhood where the rioting took place.
This is just crazy, Mr. Grode said in a telephone interview on Sunday night. There was a lot of tear gas in the streets, and I almost couldnt get back to my apartment. Theres a huge police presence.
Rumors of Uighurs attacking Han Chinese spread quickly through parts of Urumqi, adding to the panic. A worker at Texas Restaurant, a few hundred yards from the site of the rioting, said her manager urged the restaurant workers to stay inside. My boss went home in the evening and called us saying he had heard that Uighurs were beating Han Chinese, so wed better stay in the restaurant, said the worker, a woman who gave only her surname, Wang.
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 two million or so people. 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 and often warning visitors to stay away from the area.
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. When public buses stopped at the scene, Uighurs riding inside opened the windows and joined the crowd in shouting slogans.
Police officers soon arrived. Around 7 p.m., protesters began hurling rocks, vegetables and other goods from the market at the police, Mr. Grode said. Traffic had ground to a halt, and some rioters threw stones at bus windows.
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 Peoples Armed Police, a paramilitary force, to quell riots. The troops shot off tear gas canisters and might have fired other projectiles too, Mr. Grode said.
By midnight, he said, some of the armored vehicles had begun to leave, but bursts of gunfire could still be heard.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/06/world/asia/06china.html?_r=1&hp
Violence erupts in China's Xinjiang region; 2 killed
5 Jul 2009, 2016 hrs IST, AFP
Print Email Discuss Share Save Comment Text:
BEIJING: Police rushed on Sunday to restore order in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi where an unknown number of people attacked passers-by
and torched vehicles, state media reported.
The state news agency Xinhua said the violence erupted on Sunday afternoon in the capital of the restive Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region.
Xinjiang is home to about eight million Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group, and many members of the mainly Muslim community say they have suffered political and religious persecution for decades.
A Uighur activist in Japan said 1,000 Chinese police confronted some 3,000 Uighur demonstrators in Urumqi, the capital of western Xinjiang region, on Sunday in a clash that left two people dead.
The head of the Japan Uighur Association, Ilham Mahmut, said that he had also heard that at least 300 people had been arrested, citing Internet communications from China.
"At 5pm local time about 3,000 Uighur people gathered in Urumqi and demonstrated and about 1,000 Chinese police confronted them, and I heard that two Uighur people are already dead," Mahmut said.
"The Chinese police tried to disband the demonstration and they used electric cattle prods and they fired guns into the air as warning shots. As we speak about 300 Uighur people have been already arrested and I've heard two people died because Chinese police used electric cattle prods."
He added that demonstrators were regrouping to continue their protest.
"About 400 people are trying to resume the demonstration," he said.
He said the tensions were sparked by a recent violent dispute at a toy factory between Chinese and Uighurs sparked by a rumour that Uighurs had abused a Chinese woman.
Violence erupts in China's Xinjiang region; 2 killed - China - World - The Times of India
