Riots in Western China Amid Ethnic Tension

Riots in Western China Amid Ethnic Tension
Published on July 6, 2009 by brooks
A photograph taken by a local citizen showed protesters gathering in Urumqi, China, on Sunday

A photograph taken by a local citizen showed protesters gathering in Urumqi, China, on Sunday

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 couldn’t get back to my apartment. There’s 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 we’d 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 People’s 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.
Uyghur people

The Uyghur, pronounced /’wiˌgur/ (UK) or /uj.ˈgur/ (US) which is closer to native /ʊɪ’ʁʊː/ (ooy’goor), are a Turkic ethnic group living in Eastern and Central Asia. Today Uyghurs live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (also known by its controversial name Uyghurstan or East Turkistan) in the People’s Republic of China.

There are Uyghur diasporic communities in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Uzbekistan, Australia, Germany and Turkey and smaller ones in Afghanistan, Russia and Taoyuan County of Hunan province in south-central Mainland China.[3] Uyghur neighborhoods can be found in major Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai. There are small communities in the United States, mainly in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City and Washington, DC, as well as Toronto and Vancouver in Canada.

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