Deadly Clashes in Xinjiang

Deadly Clashes in Xinjiang
2009-07-05

An unknown number of people are dead in northwestern China after a new clash involving the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic minority.

Sent by a witness

On this picture sent to RFA by a witness, cordons of Chinese riot police face up to demonstrators on July 5, in Urumqi.

HONG KONG—China’s official media are calling a deadly clash in the far-northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR) a plot by exiled members of the mostly Muslim Uyghur ethnic group.

Residents of the regional capital, Urumqi, turned out to protest how authorities handled a recent clash between majority Han Chinese and Ughur factory workers in Shaoguan city, in the southern province of Guangdong, witnesses and official media said.

The number of people killed, injured, and detained in the clash Sunday was unclear.

Official media initially said three people had been killed, all of them Han Chinese, but in later reports they said an unknown number had died.

Uyghur witnesses said the protest began when as many as 1,000 Uyghurs gathered to demand a probe into the deadly fight in Guangdong late last month.

Authorities said the situation was calm as of early Monday, but traffic was ordered off the streets to avoid further unrest, according to the official news agency, Xinhua.

Before the demonstrators reached the People’s Square in central Urumqi, armed police were in position and moved to disperse them, one witness said.

Police "scattered them [the protesters]," he said.

"They beat them. Beat them, including girls, very, very viciously,” he said. “The police were chasing them and captured many of them. They were beaten badly."

“When the demonstrators reached the People's Square, armed police suppressed them using electroshock weapons and so on,” he said, adding, “after that, other protests erupted in Uyghur areas of town.”

Witnesses said more police moved in with armored vehicles around 5 p.m.

“When the protest started... I was near the Bank of China in Nanmen. There were many people. Police surrounded the areas from Döngköwrük to Nanmen," one youth said. "There were police, paramilitary. They were fully armored and they had steel helmets, too."

"One was giving a speech in front of the bank and people were applauding him...Most of them were students," he said.

"Police circled around them, and we couldn't get inside."

Another youth said the protest began peacefully but became violent after police fired on the crowd, and protesters then attacked cars and shops. His account couldn't be independently confirmed.

Curfew reported

A police officer contacted by telephone said a curfew had been imposed on Uyghur areas.

"People are dead. This might have planned by evil-minded people," the officer said.

Urumqi is home to 2.3 million residents, including many Uyghurs, who have chafed for years under Chinese rule. The city is located 3,270 kms (2,050 miles) west of Beijing.

Uyghur sources said the protest was organized online and began early July 5 with about 1,000 people but grew by thousands more during the day.

Online messages meanwhile called on Uyghurs in other major cities to stage protests Monday to show support for the Uyghurs who died in Shaoguan.

“We decided to hold a demonstration and stressed that it shouldn’t be violent," an organizer of Sunday's demonstration said in an interview.

Security in Urumqi is always tight, including strict controls over information. Witnesses spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity.

Blaming exiles

Xinhua blamed the riot on exiled Uyghurs demanding independence from Beijing.

The Washington-based Uyghur American Association, in a statement late Sunday, cited reports that 1,000 to 3,000 protesters marched through the Döng Körük [Erdaoqiao] area of Urumchi on Sunday, "some of whom were waving the flag of the People’s Republic of China."

Chinese authorities deployed regular police, anti-riot police, special police, and the People's Armed Police to contain them, it said, citing unnamed witnesses as saying that an unknown number of Uyghur protesters died after police fired on them.

Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the exiled Uyghur organization, said the incident "could have been avoided if the Chinese authorities had properly investigated the Shaoguan killings."

In separate interviews, three Uyghur youths now under Chinese government protection said the fighting in Shaoguan began when Han Chinese laborers stormed the dormitories of Uyghur colleagues, beating them with clubs, bars, and machetes.

The clashes began late June 25 and lasted into the early hours of the following day. At least two people were killed and 118 inju\ured, and wirtnesses said those number could be higher.

Resentment simmers

Like Tibet, which erupted in protests in early 2008, the XUAR comprises smoldering ethnic tensions related to religion, culture, and regional economic development that residents say has disproportionately enriched and employed majority Han Chinese immigrants.

China has accused Uyghur separatists of fomenting unrest in the region, particularly in the run-up to and during the Olympics last year when a wave of violence hit the vast desert region.

The violence prompted a crackdown in which the government says 1,295 people were detained for state security crimes, along with tighter curbs on the practice of Islam.

XUAR Party Chief Wang Lequan was quoted in China’s official media as saying the fight against these forces was a “life or death struggle,” and he has spoken since of the need to “strike hard” against ethnic separatism.

Activists have reported wide-scale detentions, arrests, new curbs on religious practices, travel restrictions, and stepped-up controls over free expression.

Orginal reporting by Mamatjan Juma, Shohret Hoshur, and Mehriban for RFA's Uyghur service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Uyghur service director: Dolkun Kamberi. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

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