China city tense but calm 1 week after riots

URUMQI, China — The center of the riot-hit city of Urumqi was tense but calm Sunday, one week after ethnic fighting began that left 184 people dead and alarmed China’s communist leaders.

Armed paramilitary police were on guard in People’s Square, the site of the July 5 protest by minority Uighurs that escalated into deadly attacks on Han Chinese, including people who were pulled off buses and beaten. More than 1,000 were hurt in the violence.

The government says most of the dead were from the Han Chinese majority, but the largely Muslim Uighurs suspect that many more of their people died.

The official Xinhua News Agency has cited provincial officials as saying 137 victims were Han while 46 were Uighurs and one was a Hui, another Muslim group.

The Urumqi Public Security Bureau published a notice late Saturday banning illegal assembly, marches and demonstrations in the western city.

The notice said the situation was “basically under control” but that there was “still sporadic illegal assemblies and demonstrations in some places,” Xinhua reported.

Some roads to the main market were still closed Sunday, and the market remained guarded by armed military police. An officer was teaching them simple greetings in the Uighur language.

Officials have yet to make public key details about the riots and what happened next, including how much force police used to re-impose order. Officials and Xinhua have not said whether all the victims were killed Sunday or in later days, when vigilante mobs ran through the city with bricks, clubs and cleavers.

The violence broke out following a protest against the June 26 deaths of Uighur factory workers in a brawl in southern China. The crowd then scattered throughout Urumqi, attacking Han Chinese, burning cars and smashing windows.

In one of the worst-hit Uighur districts, Wang Yong was installing metal shutters at his small convenience store on Sunday. He said rioters shattered his windows and set the shop on fire, causing 30,000 to 40,000 (US$4,400 to $5,900) in damages.

“It is for safety that I’m installing these shutters,” said Wang, who is Han Chinese. “They give me a sense of security.”

A Uighur businessman who gave his name as Akbar expressed cautious optimism that the tensions will eventually subside.

“They have been afraid of Uighurs,” Akbar said of the Han. “And the Uighurs are afraid of the Han people. But I’m not too worried. I think it should get better slowly.”

Thousands of Chinese troops have flooded into Urumqi to separate the feuding ethnic groups, and a senior Communist Party official vowed to execute those guilty of murder in the rioting.

One Uighur, 68-year-old retiree Korban Yakob, said the city now feels safe.

“I don’t think anything will happen now that Friday prayers have passed,” he said.

China has accused Rebiya Kadeer, a 62-year-old Uighur businesswoman who lives in exile in the U.S., of instigating the riots, without providing evidence. She has denied it.

Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Communist Party’s nine-man ruling Politburo, warned of further problems caused by overseas groups.

“They are attempting to stage more sabotage,” Xinhua quoted him as saying during a tour of Xinjiang.

The government believes the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) should be grateful for Xinjiang’s rapid economic development, which has brought new schools, highways, airports, railways, natural gas fields and oil wells in the sprawling, rugged Central Asian region, three times the size of Texas.

But many of the Turkic-speaking Uighurs, with a population of 9 million in Xinjiang, accuse the dominant Han ethnic group of discriminating against them and saving all the best jobs for themselves. Many say the Communist Party is repressive and tries to snuff out their Islamic faith, language and culture.

Xinhua also reported an oil tank blast Sunday morning at a chemical plant in Urumqi, but it said the blast was not sabotage. It said the blast was triggered by a fire, which was soon put out, and that there no casualties.