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| China-Japan-Koreas | |
| Chinese troops flood Urumqi after riots | |
| 2009-07-09 | |
| Thousands of Chinese troops flooded into this city Wednesday to separate feuding ethnic groups after three days of communal violence left 156 people dead, and a senior Communist Party official vowed to execute those guilty of murder in the rioting in western China. Long convoys of armored cars and green troop trucks with riot police rumbled through Urumqi, a city of 2.3 million people. Other security forces carrying automatic rifles with bayonets formed cordons to defend Muslim neighborhoods from marauding groups of vigilantes with sticks.
The crisis was so severe that President Hu Jintao cut short a trip to Italy, where he was to participate in a Group of Eight summit. It was an embarrassing move for a leader who wants to show that China has a harmonious society as it prepares to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Communist rule. The heightened security came amid the worst spasm of ethnic violence in decades in Xinjiang--a sprawling, oil-rich territory that borders Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Central Asian countries. The region is home to the Uighur ethnic minority, who rioted Sunday and attacked the Han Chinese--the nation's biggest ethnic group--after holding a protest that was ended by police. Officials have said 156 people were killed as the Turkic-speaking Uighurs ran amok in the city, beating and stabbing the Han Chinese. The Uighurs allege that trigger-happy security forces gunned down many of the protesters, and officials have yet to give an ethnic breakdown of those killed. More than 1,100 people were wounded in the violence. Dr. Yuan Hong of Urumqi People's Hospital said most of the people treated at his facility were clubbed, while others had been cut by knives. Li Zhi, the highest-ranking Communist Party official in Urumqi, told reporters that some of the rioters were university students who were misled and didn't understand what they were doing. They would be treated leniently, he said, as long as they weren't involved in serious acts of violence and vandalism. But Li added: "To those who committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them." He also repeated allegations that the riot was whipped up by U.S.-exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer and her overseas supporters. "They're afraid to see our economic prosperity. They're afraid to see our ethnic unity and the people living a stable, prosperous life," he said. Kadeer has denied masterminding the violence, and many Uighurs laughed off the notion that they were puppets of groups abroad. "Not even a 3-year-old would believe that Rebiya stirred this up. It's ridiculous," said a shopkeeper who only identified himself as Ahmet. Like other Uighurs, he declined to give his full name because he feared the police would detain him. Ahmet was quick to rattle off a long list of grievances commonly mentioned by Uighurs. He accused the Han Chinese of discrimination and alleged that government policies were forcing them to abandon their culture, language and Islamic faith. "After all this rioting, I'm still filled with hatred. I'm not afraid of the Han Chinese," Ahmet said. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 More than that I suspect they want the Han to go away. IIRC there was and probably still is a huge colonization effort to spread Han everywhere in China. |
| Posted by: James 2009-07-09 23:06 |
| #3 Locals don't want freedom; they want arab model government and sharia tyranny. |
| Posted by: Black Bart Phaviting8990 2009-07-09 13:54 |
| #2 That didn't take long. |
| Posted by: gorb 2009-07-09 13:46 |
| #1 "'I'm not afraid of the Han Chinese,' Ahmet said." Pure bravado. You should be afraid, fella. Be VERY afraid. |
| Posted by: Scooter McGruder 2009-07-09 12:24 |