+ Reply to Thread
Page 1 of 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 15 of 174

Thread: Xinjiang Uighurs and ETIM thread

  1. #1
    Windweaver Senior Contributor snowhole's Avatar
    Join Date
    30 Oct 07
    Location
    Colchester, Essex, UK | Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
    Posts
    854
    Country: China

    Xinjiang Uighurs and ETIM thread

    BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | China's Xinjiang hit by violence

    China's Xinjiang hit by violence




    Three people have been killed and more than 20 injured in violence in the city of Urumqi in China's restive Xinjiang region, state media says.

    Xinhua news agency said police restored order after demonstrators attacked passers-by and set fire to vehicles.

    Xinhua did not say how many people were involved or what their motive was.

    But activists and eyewitnesses said that those involved in the unrest were minority Muslim Uighurs. An overnight curfew has been declared.

    Xinjiang is home to about eight million Uighurs, some of whom want independence.

    "It started as a few hundred, and then there were easily over 1,000 involved," one unidentified eyewitness told Reuters news agency.

    Ethnic tensions

    Adam Grode, an American national studying in Urumqi, said he has seen protesters knocking over police barriers and smashing bus windows.

    Police responded with tear gas, hoses and batons, he told the Associated Press news agency, and once night fell more police and soldiers poured into the city.

    Uighur activists in Japan and Germany said that they had received reports of multiple arrests.

    Xinhua said that the three dead were Han Chinese.

    It is not clear what triggered the unrest, but relations between the Han Chinese community and the Uighurs can be tense.

    China enforces tight controls in Xinjiang and rejects calls from the Uighurs for self-rule.

    The US state department accuses Beijing of human-rights abuses in the region.

    In a report released earlier this year, it said that "severe cultural and religious repression" of ethnic minorities in Xinjiang had increased.

    Uighur separatists, meanwhile, have waged a low-level campaign against Chinese rule for decades and there are sporadic outbreaks of violence.
    夫唯不爭,故天下莫能與之爭。

  2. #2
    Windweaver Senior Contributor snowhole's Avatar
    Join Date
    30 Oct 07
    Location
    Colchester, Essex, UK | Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
    Posts
    854
    Country: China
    Civilians and armed police officer killed in NW China violence_English_Xinhua

    Civilians and armed police officer killed in NW China violence
    English_Xinhua 2009-07-06 05:41:00 Print


    Photo taken on July 5, 2009 shows a shop which is smashed in Tianchi Street in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The violence in Urumqi has led to the death of "a number of civilians and one armed police officer" on Sunday, sources with the regional government said early Monday.(Xinhua/Liubing)
    Photo Gallery>>>

    URUMQI, July 6 (Xinhua) -- Violence in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has left at least three civilians and an armed police officer" dead on Sunday, sources with the regional government said early Monday.

    The regional government is still calculating the exact number of casualties in the event.

    Some civilians and armed police officers were injured and many motor vehicles and shops were smashed and burned, the sources said.

    The situation is basically under control, it added.

    "They took to the street, not peacefully, carrying knives, wooden batons, bricks and stones," said Wang Yaming, who was attacked by several rioters, but then saved by a group of Uygur citizens.

    A taxi driver, whose surname was Zhao, told Xinhua that he was assaulted by about 20 young people with batons rushing out of an alley.

    "They beat me badly and took my mobile phone and money away, then they smashed the window of my car," he said.

    "At around 9 p.m., eight- to- nine Uygurs besieged me near Shiqihu Road. They asked me which ethnic group I belonged to. I told them I was a Han and then was beaten by them," said Wang Kunding, in the regional People's Hospital.

    Wang said he was beaten to the ground and suffered fractures of the legs and arms. He was unable to move. He was taken to the regional People's Hospital at 1:30 a.m. Monday in the car of a Xinhua reporter.

    Groups of rioters were seen in the streets in downtown Urumqi at around 8:20 p.m. Sunday. They overthrew isolation guardrails on roads, and began to beat pedestrians of the Han ethic group. They attacked buses with batons and rocks, a Xinhua reporter witnessed.


    Firemen put out a fire in Dawannanlu Street in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 5, 2009. (Xinhua/Shen Qiao)
    Photo Gallery>>>

    An injured person was seen by a Xinhua reporter lying under the Tuanjie Road viaduct, bleeding. On another street, a woman lay dead, with a bag on her back.

    On Xinhua South Road, a sedan and a truck were overthrown. Their windows were smashed and doors seriously damaged. At the entrance of an alley to the road onlookers, mostly of ethnic minorities, shouted.

    Rioters also set fire to a hotel near the office building of the regional foreign trade committee. At least 30 buses and sedans were vandalized.

    According to Xinhua reporters at the scene, some people of the ethnic minorities, when finding the Han citizens were attacked, offered to help lead them to safe areas. They also stopped passersby from coming too close to the violence.

    As of 10:45 p.m. Sunday, the regional Traditional Chinese Medicine Hospital had received 37 injured people. The head of the hospital said under the condition of anonymity that the injured included people of the both Han and Uygur ethnic groups.

    Doctors said attackers used long knives, bricks, rocks or wooden bars.

    One of the injured was in critical condition while the others had no life-threatening injuries, the hospital head said, adding ambulances were still carrying injured people to the hospital.

      MASTERMIND BEHIND VIOLENCE


    Photo taken on July 5, 2009 shows a shop being burned in a street of Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.(Xinhua/Sadat)
    Photo Gallery>>>

    Initial investigations showed the violence was masterminded by the separatist World Uyghur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer, according to the regional government.

    Rebiya Kadeer, a former businesswoman in China, was detained in1999 on charges of harming national security. She was released on bail on March 17, 2005 to seek medical treatment in the United States.

    "The violence is a preempted, organized violent crime. It is instigated and directed from abroad, and carried out by outlaws in the country," a government statement said early Monday.

    According to the government, the World Uyghur Congress has recently been instigating an unrest via the Internet, calling on supporters "to be braver" and "to do something big."

    Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, said in a televised speech Monday morning that three forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism made use of a fight between Uygur and Han ethnic workers in a toy factory in Guangdong Province on June 26, in which two Uygur workers died, to creat chaos.

    Nur Bekri said the bodies of the two Uygur workers in the factory fight have been sent back by plane to Xinjiang for burial. Police in Xinjiang and Guangdong are jointly investigating the incident.

    The government of Shaoguan City, where the toy factory is located, and the factory are trying their best to help Uygur workers go back to work as soon as possible, he added.

    The fight was triggered by the sexual of a female Han worker assault by a Uygur coworker, he said.


    An injured man is carried to an urgent care center in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 5, 2009.(Xinhua/Shen Qiao)
    Photo Gallery>>>

    On Saturday evening, information began to spread on the Internet, calling for demonstration in the People's Square and South Gate in the Urumqi city. On Sunday, Rebiya called her accomplices in China for further instigation, according to the government statement.

    Rioters came to the street at around 7 p.m. Sunday. They gathered, marched and demonstrated, which developed into violent acts of beating, smashing, looting and burning in some places, said the official.

    "We should bear in mind that stability is to the greatest interest of all people in China, including the 21 million-plus people from all ethnic groups in Xinjiang," he said.

    Xinjiang, the far western autonomous region, is home to more than 10.96 million of ethnic minority people, including Uygur, Mongolian and Hui.

    TRAFFIC CONTROL

    The Urumqi municipal government issued an urgent notice early Monday morning, announcing traffic control in certain areas to "maintain social order in the city and guarantee the execution of duty by state organs."

    "From 1 a.m. to 8 a.m. on July 6, police will impose traffic control in certain areas in the city of Urumqi. Passage in these areas is not allowed for any vehicle," the notice reads.

    "All the units and individuals shall help maintain social order as required by this notice. People who violate the notice will be detained and punished by police according to law. Those whose acts constitute a crime shall be subject to criminal liabilities according to law," says the notice.

    Police have arrested some rioters, although the exact number of people arrested was still not available.

    This year marks the region's 60th anniversary of peaceful liberation. But during the annual "two session" in March this year, Nur Bekri warned the security situation in the region would be "more severe."

    "It's a time of celebration for Xinjiang people but hostile forces will not give up such an opportunity to sabotage," said the official.
    Editor: Mu Xuequan
    夫唯不爭,故天下莫能與之爭。

  3. #3
    Windweaver Senior Contributor snowhole's Avatar
    Join Date
    30 Oct 07
    Location
    Colchester, Essex, UK | Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
    Posts
    854
    Country: China
    For updates and pictures of this incident:

    https://docs.google.com/View?id=dc6tvttf_12gtf854dw

    (Simplified Chinese)
    夫唯不爭,故天下莫能與之爭。

  4. #4
    Windweaver Senior Contributor snowhole's Avatar
    Join Date
    30 Oct 07
    Location
    Colchester, Essex, UK | Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
    Posts
    854
    Country: China
    夫唯不爭,故天下莫能與之爭。

  5. #5
    Windweaver Senior Contributor snowhole's Avatar
    Join Date
    30 Oct 07
    Location
    Colchester, Essex, UK | Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
    Posts
    854
    Country: China
    According to 乌鲁木齐市严重暴力犯罪事件造成140人死828人伤——中 新网

    Stats now count 140 dead, 828 injured, 261 automobiles burned (including 190 buses and about a dozen cabs), 203 shops and stores (6300 m^3) and 14 civilian residents (1200 m^3) broken into.
    夫唯不爭,故天下莫能與之爭。

  6. #6
    Defense Moderator
    Defense Professional
    Lei Feng Protege
    xinhui's Avatar
    Join Date
    17 May 06
    Posts
    7,218
    Country: Guatemala
    huge news coverage from Chinese press, different from that of the Tibetan riot
    视频新闻

  7. #7
    Defense Moderator
    Defense Professional
    Lei Feng Protege
    xinhui's Avatar
    Join Date
    17 May 06
    Posts
    7,218
    Country: Guatemala
    From Global Times, English edition of People's daily.


    140 killed, 828 injured in NW China violence

    * Source: Global Times
    * [13:22 July 06 2009]
    * Comments

    Photo taken on July 5, 2009 shows a shop which is smashed in Tianchi Street in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The violence in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has led to the death of "a number of civilians and one armed police officer" on Sunday, sources with the regional government said early Monday.(Xinhua/Liu Bing)
    Photo taken on July 5, 2009 shows a shop which is smashed in Tianchi Street in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The violence in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has led to the death of "a number of civilians and one armed police officer" on Sunday, sources with the regional government said early Monday.(Xinhua/Liu Bing)

    The violence in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has left 140 people dead and injured 828 others, the regional public security department said Monday.

    Police have arrested several hundred participants, including more than ten key figures who fanned the unrest on Sunday, are still searching for about 90 other key figures in the city, the Xinjiang Public Security Department said.

    Fifty-seven people were confirmed dead on the scene and all the others died later at hospital, a spokesman of the regional government said at a press conference on Monday. The death toll would still be climbing, he added.

    An injured man is carried to an urgent care center in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 5, 2009.(Xinhua/Shen Qiao)
    An injured man is carried to an urgent care center in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 5, 2009.(Xinhua/Shen Qiao)

  8. #8
    Senior Contributor
    Join Date
    29 Mar 08
    Posts
    999
    140 killed ?

    Did they send in the army to crush the protests?

  9. #9
    Windweaver Senior Contributor snowhole's Avatar
    Join Date
    30 Oct 07
    Location
    Colchester, Essex, UK | Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
    Posts
    854
    Country: China
    PAP was there. But the 140 mentioned here were victims to rioters. It was not a protest, it was smashing, robbing, setting fire on shops, and beating up innocent people.

    If however PAP was there and didn't open fire, from the comments I've seen on Chinese internet (before they were deleted), they (PAP and CCP) would go under public criticism this time. A time when the Shaoguan toy factory incident (whether it's true or not) has done further damage to the already tenious Han-Uighurs relationship.
    Last edited by snowhole; 06 Jul 09, at 10:16.
    夫唯不爭,故天下莫能與之爭。

  10. #10
    Senior Contributor
    Join Date
    29 Mar 08
    Posts
    999
    Quote Originally Posted by snowhole View Post
    PAP was there. But the 140 mentioned here were victims to rioters. It was not a protest, it was smashing, robbing, setting fire on shops, and beating up innocent people.

    If however PAP was there and didn't open fire, from the comments I've seen on Chinese internet (before they were deleted), they (PAP and CCP) would go under public criticism this time. A time when the Shaoguan toy factory incident (whether it's true or not) has already done much damage to the already tenious Han-Uighurs relationship.
    If the death toll is accurate and if they were indeed due to riots you can imagine the violence that was on display in the streets. It sure looks more like an attempt at ethnic cleansing (by the Uighurs?) than a sudden outburst of violence.

  11. #11
    Windweaver Senior Contributor snowhole's Avatar
    Join Date
    30 Oct 07
    Location
    Colchester, Essex, UK | Suzhou, Jiangsu, China
    Posts
    854
    Country: China
    BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Scores killed in China protests
    (It contains a video, go to bbc's page to check out)

    Violence in China's restive western region of Xinjiang has left at least 140 people dead and more than 800 people injured, state media say.

    Several hundred people were also arrested after a protest turned violent in the city of Urumqi on Sunday.

    Beijing says Uighurs went on the rampage but one exiled Uighur leader says police fired on students.

    The protest was reportedly prompted by a deadly fight between Uighurs and Han Chinese in southern China last month.

    The BBC's Chris Hogg in Shanghai says that if the numbers of dead are to be believed - and state media say they may rise - this look like the bloodiest violence in China since Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.

    It is still unclear who died in the violence and why so many were killed.

    'Foreign plot'

    Uighur exiles said police had fired indiscriminately on a peaceful protest in Urumqi.
    Map

    The Xinjiang government blamed separatist Uighurs based abroad for orchestrating attacks on ethnic Han Chinese.

    Eyewitnesses said the violence started on Sunday with a few hundred people, and grew to more than 1,000.

    Xinhua says the protesters carried knives, bricks and batons, smashed cars and stores, and fought with security forces.

    Wu Nong, news director for the Xinjiang government, said more than 260 vehicles were attacked and more than 200 shops and houses damaged. An overnight curfew was imposed.

    BBC sources in China report they have been unable to open the Twitter messaging site in Shanghai and that message boards on Xinjiang on a number of websites were not taking posts.

    Reports from Xinjiang suggest some internet and mobile phone services have been blocked.

    Urumqi resident Han Zhenyu told Reuters news agency there was no access to the internet. A representative of the China Mobile phone service told Associated Press its service was suspended in the region.

    'Dark day'

    Uighur groups insisted their peaceful protest had become victim to state violence.


    UIGHURS AND XINJIANG
    Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims
    They make up about 8m of the 20m population
    China re-established control in 1949 after crushing short-lived state of East Turkestan
    Since then, large-scale immigration of Han Chinese
    Uighurs fear erosion of traditional culture
    Sporadic violence since 1991

    In pictures: Xinjiang protests
    Q&A: China and the Uighurs

    The Uighurs were reportedly angry over an ethnic clash last month in the city of Shaoguan in southern Guangdong province.

    A man there was said to have posted a message on a local website claiming six boys from Xinjiang had "raped two innocent girls".

    Police said the false claim sparked a vicious brawl between Han and Uighur ethnic groups at a factory. Two Uighurs were killed and 118 people were injured.

    However, the Xinjiang government has blamed the latest unrest on businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, the Uighurs' leader who is living in exile in the United States.

    "An initial investigation showed the violence was masterminded by the separatist World Uighur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer," the government said in a statement, according to Xinhua.

    It said the violence had been "instigated and directed from abroad".


    FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME

    More from Today programme

    The vice-president of the US-based Uighur American Association, Alim Seytoff, condemned the "heavy-handed" actions of the security forces.

    "We ask the international community to condemn China's killing of innocent Uighurs. This is a very dark day in the history of the Uighur people," he said.

    The BBC's Quentin Sommerville in China says Xinjiang, a mainly Muslim area, has been a source of tension for many years.

    Some of its Uighur population of about eight million, want to break away from China, and its majority Han Chinese population.

    The authorities say police are securing order across the region and anyone creating a disturbance will be detained and punished.

    Are you in Xinjiang? Did you see what happened in the region? Tell us your experiences using in the form below.
    From what I know from a netizen who lives in Urumqi, he saw the protest yesterday afternoon, and it was peaceful, and police came, and the protesters went back home. And then he went back home and wrote a thread describing it. I knew this thread might later get deleted but still pm'ed him to be careful of himself. And I thought that was about it.

    Apparently those violence were some time after that original protest. I don't know the details, yet from some (extremely disturbing) pictures I've seen, victims are of Han ethnicity.
    夫唯不爭,故天下莫能與之爭。

  12. #12
    Senior Contributor HKDan's Avatar
    Join Date
    23 May 06
    Location
    Shanghai
    Posts
    805
    This is really crazy, my wife and I just returned from a holiday in Xinjiang a few days ago. We were in Urumqi last Friday. My wife, who is a Chinese citizen, remarked several times during our trip that she was surprised at how peaceful and safe Xinjiang seemed(it often has a pretty bad reputation in China). We had a fantastic time visiting Hami, Turpan, and Urumqi. I am amazed to see that this took place so soon after we left and my sympathies go out to the families of the kiled and injured.

  13. #13
    Senior Contributor HKDan's Avatar
    Join Date
    23 May 06
    Location
    Shanghai
    Posts
    805
    Quote Originally Posted by Oscar View Post
    If the death toll is accurate and if they were indeed due to riots you can imagine the violence that was on display in the streets. It sure looks more like an attempt at ethnic cleansing (by the Uighurs?) than a sudden outburst of violence.
    I know that increasing numbers of Han settling in Xinjiang is a major cause of tension in the area, I wouldn't be surprised at all if there was some element of ethnic cleansing involved in the riots.

  14. #14
    Banned Patron
    Join Date
    16 May 09
    Location
    Germany
    Posts
    162
    Country: Vietnam

  15. #15
    Professor (retired) Senior Contributor Merlin's Avatar
    Join Date
    02 Feb 09
    Location
    Singapore, Singapore, Singapore
    Posts
    2,674
    Country: Singapore
    This is a very bad unrest, the most number of people killed in China since the 1989 Tienanmen incident.

    Unrests are what China wants to avoid most, especially at the minorities autonomous regions and provinces.

+ Reply to Thread
Page 1 of 12 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ... LastLast

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

     

Similar Threads

  1. Attack on Chinese Border Post
    By Skywatcher in forum East Asia and the Pacific
    Replies: 118
    Last Post: 21 Aug 08,, 06:27
  2. Uighurs struggle in a world reshaped by Chinese influx
    By Ray in forum International Politics
    Replies: 45
    Last Post: 01 May 08,, 04:03
  3. Muslim executed for trying to "split" China
    By Ray in forum International Economy
    Replies: 46
    Last Post: 08 Feb 08,, 03:04
  4. China抯 Islamic Frontier
    By troung in forum East Asia and the Pacific
    Replies: 8
    Last Post: 21 Oct 06,, 03:53

Share this thread with friends:

Share this thread with friends:

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts