Xinjiang Uighurs and ETIM thread

[Skywatcher]

[QUOTE=xizhimen;658147]

legal process will take sometime,the whole world is watching

Additionally, ringleaders of the 'revenge mobs' could also stir up trouble over economic problems as well. Best to get rid of them ASAP.

[667medic]

i just checked out the link and found that those soldiers uniforms are from years ago ,different from present military uniform and clearly was taken in winter time.that is a very very old photo.

I think I first saw that pic in 2004....

[Tomluter]

The video of the 7-5 violence incident was divulged.
warning,violence,homicide, may cause disturbing.

[hanswu25]

China Witnesses Report New Protest in Urumqi, AP Says

China Witnesses Report New Protest in Urumqi, AP Says (Update1) - Bloomberg.com

"Sept. 3 (Bloomberg) -- Protests have broken out in the city of Urumqi, scene of China’s worst ethnic rioting in decades two months ago, the Associated Press reported, citing witnesses.

Hundreds and possibly thousands of ethnic Han Chinese, who were the victims of riots and bloodletting in July, gathered in the city center to demonstrate against deteriorating law and order, AP said, citing people living nearby saying by phone.

Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said she was unaware of the AP report. “The Chinese government is competent to safeguard social stability and national unity,” she said."

[xinhui]

People gather to demand security guarantee in west China's Urumqi
English_Xinhua 2009-09-03 17:06:28 Print
URUMQI, Sept.3 (Xinhua) -- People gathered at a number of sites in Urumqi Thursday morning, demanding security guarantee from authorities after syringe attacks were reported in the capital city of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

More than 1,000 people started to gather at 10:50 a.m. at the residential quarter of Xiaoximen, said a police officer who requested anonymity.

People also showed up in big crowds at Renmin Cinema and Beiyuanchun farmers' produce wholesale market.

Local police had seized 15 suspects for attacking people with hypodermic syringe needles in the city after receiving reports of the attacks, a senior local official said Wednesday.

Tens of thousands of protesters demand security guarantees in Urumqi after hypodermic syringe attacks_English_Xinhua

[hanswu25]

China official: 5 killed during Urumqi protests

China official: 5 killed during Urumqi protests - Yahoo! News

URUMQI, China – Five people have died during mass protests sparked by a bizarre series of hypodermic needle stabbings in this western Chinese city that has been wracked by ethnic unrest, an official said Friday.

Deputy Mayor Zhang Hong said the deaths came on Thursday, during demonstrations by members of China's majority Han ethnic group who are also demanding punishment of Muslim Uighurs accused in July rioting that claimed nearly 200 lives.

Protesters took to the streets again Friday. Police used tear gas and public appeals to break up Han crowds who tried repeatedly to break through to government offices.

Lingering tensions from the rioting have fed fears over the more than 500 reported syringe stabbings, which like the earlier violence have targeted mostly Han.

Public Security Minister Meng Jianzhu said the same Muslim ethnic separatists Beijing has blamed for the rioting that started July 5 orchestrated the needle attacks.

"The needle stabbing incident is a continuation of the '7-5' incident, and it's plotted by unlawful elements and instigated by ethnic separatist forces," Meng said in comments broadcast on national television. "Their purpose is to damage ethnic unity."

His comments were the first time authorities suggested Uighur militants were involved in the stabbings.

Meng gave no evidence, and the government has not backed up its accusations about the earlier violence. By most accounts, the July riot started after police confronted Uighur protesters, who then attacked Han. Days later, Han vigilantes tore through Uighur neighborhoods to retaliate.

Zhang said 21 people had been detained on suspicion of carrying out the needle attacks, and four people have been indicted. He said all were Uighurs.

The Xinjiang region and its capital, Urumqi, have for decades faced a simmering separatist movement by the largely Muslim Uighurs.

Meng's arrival in Urumqi from Beijing was a measure of China's anxieties that order was slipping in the often tense city of 2.5 million and that violence between Hans and Uighurs could flare again.

Zhang said two of those killed on Thursday died in "small-scale clashes" and were "innocent," but he gave no details. He said authorities were investigating the other three deaths. Fourteen others were injured.

The police response to the unrest on Friday was more forceful than on Thursday, possibly as a result of the killings.

Hundreds of young Han men protested outside the headquarters of Xinjiang party secretary Wang Lequan — an ally of President Hu Jintao_ chanting for him to step down.

Armed police in riot gear pushed back demonstrators, some waving Chinese flags and singing the national anthem. Several rounds of tear gas were fired to disperse crowds.

One Han man argued with paramilitary police.

"It's been two months already. How many more months are we going to wait, how long before us Han can feel safe?" said the man, who would give only his surname, Ma.

A truck with loudspeakers circled behind him, with a recorded voice saying repeatedly: "Disperse. Don't stay here. Think of the nation."

Meng vowed the government would speed up the process of charging and prosecuting the more than 1,200 people detained in the July riot, in which 197 people were killed and about 1,700 injured.

"We should quicken the pace of dealing with the detained suspects and dig up the plotters behind this, and severely punish the murderers," Meng said.

Heavily Uighur neighborhoods were sealed off by security forces.

Local police authorities said hospitals in Urumqi are treating 531 people who believe they were attacked with hypodermic needles, 55 more than previously reported, the official Xinhua News Agency said. About 106 showed obvious signs of needle attacks, it said.

So far, none showed any signs of infection or poisoning, state media has said. None of 160 or so people treated at the Urumqi Medical College Hospital showed symptoms of AIDS or hepatitis, said Lin Fangmu, director of the preventative medicine department.

The most common symptom they displayed was "mainly just fear, terror," Lin said.

One middle-aged Han Chinese man said police should leave the protesters alone.

"They should be catching the terrorists, not harassing the people," said Ji Xiaolong. "I have to wonder if Hu Jintao really knows what is going on here."

Two Hong Kong broadcasters, TVB and now TV, said three of their reporters were detained for over three hours for filming a protest and released. Some of their seized cameras and tapes were returned. An Associated Press photographer and TV crew had their cameras confiscated and returned after five hours.

[Merlin]

These sackings were first officially reported by Xinhua.

City leader sacked over China protests

1 hr ago [AP] URUMQI, China — Chinese leaders removed the Communist Party chief of the restive western city of Urumqi on Saturday, trying to appease public anger following sometimes violent protests this week that the government worries could re-ignite deadly ethnic rioting.

The government's Xinhua News Agency, in announcing the decision, did not give a reason for the firing of Li Zhi. But protesters who marched by thousands on Thursday and Friday have demanded Li's and his boss's dismissal for failing to provide adequate public safety in the city.

A series of stabbings with hypodermic needles that the government blames on Muslim separatists touched off the protests, which left five dead, and further unnerved the city still uneasy from July rioting that killed 197, mostly members of China's Han majority attacked by Muslim Uighurs.

Trying to get control of the situation, leaders replaced Li with Zhu Hailun, who has been the party's top official in charge of law enforcement in Urumqi. Also sacked, Xinhua said, was an official in the police department for Xinjiang, China's western most region that abuts Central Asia and whose capital is Urumqi. The official's name was not released.

Besides assuaging public anger, the Chinese leadership hopes that sacking Li will alleviate calls to remove Xinjiang party secretary Wang Lequan, a member of the ruling Politburo and an ally of President Hu Jintao.

Both Li and Wang took visible roles in trying to defuse the protests, separately wading into crowds to meet with protesters Thursday only to be greeted with shouts to "step down." ....

[Tomluter]

pic

[hanswu25]

Hong Kong Journalists Protest Alleged Abuse of Reporters

Hong Kong Journalists Protest Alleged Abuse of Reporters - WSJ.com

HONG KONG -- Hundreds of Hong Kong journalists, lawmakers and residents marched Sunday to protest the alleged police beatings of three reporters covering recent unrest in western China and demanded a government investigation.
...
The TV journalists were covering the aftermath of a mass protest by Han Chinese in the troubled city of Urumqi earlier this month after a series of attacks with syringe needles that China's government blames on Muslim separatists.

The three, who worked for TVB and Now TV news outlets in Hong Kong, said they were kicked, punched, and shoved to the ground by police before being detained for about three hours. However, Xinjiang authorities who investigated the matter have said security personnel repeatedly asked the reporters to leave before they were detained and faulted the reporters for "instigating" the unrest -- allegations the reporters' companies say are false.