XINJIANG PROTEST July 7, 2009
Posted by wmmbb in CENTRAL ASIA.trackback
The response of authoritarian governments follow they stereotypical formula. Xinjiang is the latest example, when apparently the underlying tensions between the Han Chinese and Uighur ethnicities. 140 people are reported to have died as a result.
The disturbance seems have been caused by the video on the internet of a person based to death in Southern China. If the television reports are to be believed it seems that local Uighurs took revenge in Urumqi, the capital city. From the other side it is suggested that police fired on the crowd, as mentioned by the BBC.
Stephen McDonell for the ABC reports:
Xinjiang’s regional government has blamed international activists for planning the protest.
“This is a typical incident of beating, smashing and looting ordered by overseas forces. It was premeditated, planned and organised,” Governor of Xinjiang Autonomous Region Nur Bekri said.
This year is the 60th anniversary of Xinjiang’s re-incorporation into China; the government calls it the “peaceful liberation of Xinjiang” but many Uighurs still do not accept Beijing’s rule.
Chinese authorities have warned that today’s type of conflict could increase because of Xinjiang’s strategic location on the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
They are worried that if Uighur separatist groups link up with the separatists in Pakistan, they could have a much more serious armed conflict in western China.
Stephen McDonell observes that what Uighurs he has spoken to say publically and privately is contradictory. Authorities, as they did in Iran, are similarly, so it is reported, shutting down the internet to prevent pictures of the demonstrations being circulated.
UPDATE: 10 November 2009
The BBC reports that nine people were executed over the riots. The report notes:
According to a recent government white paper on Xinjiang, the July riots were caused by Uighur separatists promoting an independent “East Turkestan”.
The exiled World Uighur Congress says Beijing exaggerates the threat to justify harsh controls.
There have been a number of bombings and other attacks over the years in the region that authorities have blamed on separatists.
The normally bustling mosques of China’s Urumqi city were ordered shut on the main Muslim day of prayer today with police out in force to prevent new outbreaks of deadly ethnic unrest.
Uighur Muslims said they had been directed to pray at home, as armed forces saturated the streets of the northwest Xinjiang region’s capital five days after clashes that authorities said left 156 people dead.
“The government said there would be no Friday prayers,” said a Uighur man named Tursun outside the Hantagri mosque, one of the oldest in the capital, as about 100 policemen carrying machine guns and batons stood guard nearby.
“There’s nothing we can do… the government is afraid that people will use religion to support the three forces.”
The “three forces”‘ is a Chinese government term referring to extremism, separatism and terrorism, forces it says are trying to split the remote Xinjiang region from the rest of the country.
Xinjiang’s eight million Uighurs have long complained about religious, political and economic repression under Chinese rule, and this deep-set anger spilled out on Sunday in protests that quickly turned violent.
The Chinese government said 156 people were killed and more than 1,000 others were injured, as Uighur Muslims attacked people from China’s dominant Han ethnic group.
But Uighur exiles have said security forces over-reacted to peaceful protests. They said up to 800 people may have died in the unrest.
Many security forces remained in place today, and the traditional Muslim day of prayer passed with many Uighurs and other Muslims such as from the Hui ethnic group unable to attend mosques. “Go home to pray,” said handwritten notices on the front gates of five shuttered mosques visited yesterday.
When asked if all mosques in Urumqi were closed today, a spokesman for the Xinjiang regional government said that “all religious activities should go on normally,” without elaborating.
荔枝角卓越迷你倉
香港仔時昌迷你倉
A court in western China’s Xinjiang region has sentenced six people to death in the first trials over July 5 riots that left nearly 200 people dead, state-run television reported.
China Central Television said one other defendant was sentenced to life in prison over the unrest, the worst ethnic violence to hit China in decades.
During the rioting, members of the ethnic Uygur minority – most of whom are Muslims – went on a rampage in attacks directed mainly at members of China’s dominant Han ethnic group.
The riots left 197 people dead, most of them Han, according to the government.
Officials at the Urumqi court refused to immediately confirm the sentences, but CCTV said the death sentences were meted out due to the severity of the crimes.
Those sentenced appeared to all have Uygur names.
Police have detained at least 718 people suspected of crimes related to the unrest, earlier reports said.
State-controlled Xinhua News Agency quoted the city’s prosecutor late last month saying 21 people had so far been charged with crimes including homicide, arson, robbery and property damage related to the riots.
Footage broadcast by CCTV showed deserted streets in front of the Urumqi court, with riot police out in force.
Urumqi has been under extremely heavy security since the riots, tightened amid a wave of needle attacks beginning in late August which Han have blamed on Uygurs.
mini storage
The death of any person whether Han or Uighur is very sad and unnecessary. The fact that the deaths may be related to ethnic and religious is a separate cause of concern which suggests that there are issues related to justice and structural violence that need to be addressed.
Thank you for commenting.
Thanks for the information.
By 迷你倉