The city of Urumqi will adopt a "comprehensive traffic control" Tuesday night to avoid further chaos amid the ongoing unrest, said Wang Lequan, secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Committee of CPC, in a televised speech.
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URUMQI, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Chaos hit Urumqi again Tuesday afternoon, nearly two days after a riot that killed 156 people and injured more than 1,000 others.
Several thousand protesters, mostly Han Chinese, marched along Youhao Street and Guangming Street toward Erdaoqiao, mainly inhabited by Uygurs, in downtown Urumqi.
The protesters, holding clubs, knives, axes, hammers and various types of tools that could be used as weapons, shouted "protecting our home, protect our family members".
They were stopped by units of the Armed Police before reaching the destination. No clashes were reported.
A Xinhua reporter saw an officer with the Armed Police crying while he followed the march.
Li Zhi, Party leader in Urumqi, rushed to the scene at about 4:30 p.m., to appease the protesters.
"Down with Rebiya (Kadeer). Let's unite and try to build a better Urumqi," Li yelled through a loudspeaker.
"Uygur people and Han Chinese are brothers and sisters, we are a family," said the official while repeatedly asking the crowds to leave.
Many of the protesters began to persuade others to refrain from extreme action, "otherwise those who instigated the deadly Sunday violence would be very happy to see more unrests," a man said while listening to Li's talk.
But some people asked for punishment of the killers and stronger government action.
"Let's leave here now. Rebiya must be very willing to see that Urumqi turns out to be in a mess," another protester shouted.
A Uygur woman, hugging a child, walked through the protesters with a police escort.
"Let them go. Uygur mobs killed our women and children, but we will not kill theirs," some protesters said.
The crowds spontaneously sang the National Anthem and gradually dispersed in about 40 minutes. Only several hundred remained at the scene.
Many protesters had gathered at the Urumqi South Railway Station, Changjiang Road, Yangzijiang Road and some other places. People ran away in panic and roadside shops were shut down.
Residents of some community compounds held bats for self-defense.
"We will not hide anymore. We will fight back if they (the rioters) come," said a man standing in front of a building in Shihezi.
Crowds of people rushed to the municipal people's hospital to take shelter. Many nurses were trying to call their relatives to make sure they are safe.
An adult who was coughing up blood and a young man whose head was covered in blood were rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.
The regional hospital of traditional Chinese medicine received about three Han Chinese with fresh wounds on their bodies in the afternoon, the president of the hospital told Xinhua.
Witnesses said a group of people gathering around an outlet of the Quanjude roast duck restaurant at Changjiang Road were beating a man at about 2 p.m..
Police managed to stop the attack and rescued the man.
Someone drove a car into a police wagon during a standoff with police at Tuanjie Road at about 1:30 p.m.. Police have arrested a number of people. The number of arrests in the latest outburst is unknown at this time.
"I was shocked how they killed people bloodily. Beating and killing innocent people is extremely cruel," Alfred N. Shifu, an English teacher with Beijing City University, told Xinhua.
"For a long time, the Chinese government has been pretty tolerant, but they should crackdown severely on those terrorists," said the 32-year-old Cameroon national, who has been in China for seven years. "I think the police should shoot any of those killers."
Evidence showed that the separatist World Uyghur Congress leader Rebiya Kadeer masterminded the Sunday violence. Rioters attacked civilians, smashed vehicles and shops and set fire to urban facilities.
(Writings by Xinhua correspondents Zhao Ying, Gui Tao and Cao Kai in Beijing and Li Jianmin, Ji Shaoting, He Zhanjun and Xing Guangli in Xinjiang; Reporting by bureau reporters in Xinjiang)
Xinjiang to adopt curfew in capital city Tuesday night
URUMQI, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The city of Urumqi will adopt a curfew Tuesday night to avoid further chaos amid the ongoing unrest, said Wang Lequan, secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), on Tuesday.
A "comprehensive traffic control" will be imposed from 9:00 p.m. Tuesday to 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, Wang announced in a televised speech.
"Some Han people took to streets in Urumqi today, disrupting social orders," he said. "This is not necessary at all."
"All the employers in the city should call on their employees to go back home. Ethnic confrontation should be definitely prohibited," he said.
NO ETHNIC CONFRONTATION
"Neither the people of Han nor Uygur ethicalities are willing to see the Han people being attacked. It is the same the other way around. If the Han people attack the innocent Uygur people, it is also heart-breaking."
"The family members of those who were involved in the violence are innocent. We should be cool-headed and do not be fooled by the enemies," he said.
"Our targets should be the hostile forces at both home and abroad and criminals, rather than our own brothers and sisters of different ethnic backgrounds."
Xinjiang Party chief orders traffic curfew, calls for avoiding ethnic conflicts
URUMQI, July 7 (Xinhua) -- The city of Urumqi will adopt a "comprehensive traffic control" Tuesday night to avoid further chaos amid the ongoing unrest, said Wang Lequan, secretary of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), in a televised speech Tuesday.
The traffic curfew will be imposed from 9:00 p.m. Tuesday to 8:00 a.m. Wednesday, he said.
"It may bring some inconvenience for your. But we expect your understanding."
In his speech, Wang called for avoiding confrontation between ethnic groups in the region.
"Some Han people took to the streets in Urumqi today, disrupting social order," he said. "It is completely unnecessary."
"Neither the people of Han nor Uygur ethnicities are willing to see the Han people being attacked. It is the same the other way around. If the Han people attack the innocent Uygur people, it is also heart-breaking."
"The family members of those who were involved in the violence are innocent. We should be cool-headed and do not be fooled by the enemies," he said.
"Our targets should be the hostile forces, both at home and abroad, and criminals, rather than our own brothers and sisters of different ethnic backgrounds.
"Unreasonable behavior will only further worsen the situation," Wang said.
"All the employers in the city should call on their employees to go back home. Ethnic confrontation should be definitely prohibited," he noted.
Wang said an overwhelming majority of the suspects involved in the deadly violence are now under investigation.
"Some of those involved are students. Most of the youngsters were unaware of the truth. If they did not play a major role in the violence, they will be released. Their future should not be ruined."
"All the injured have received the best medical treatment," said Wang.
The government would comfort and compensate bereaved families, and try hard to help restore business for those who suffered losses in the violence, he said.
The death toll from Sunday's riot in Urumqi has risen to 156, with 1,080 injured.
Mobs in deadly Xinjiang violence subject to severe punishment: official
http://www.chinaview.cn
2009-07-07 13:54:35
URUMQI, July 7 (Xinhua) -- A Xinjiang official Tuesday vowed severe punishment for the mob in the "deadliest riot since New China was founded in 1949."
Sunday's riot in Urumqi has killed 156 people and injured more than 1,000, the largest number of casualties in any single incident of its kind in six decades.
"The rioters violated laws and harmed the fundamental interests of all Chinese ethnic groups," said Li Zhi, Communist Party of China (CPC) chief of Urumqi.
Police in Xinjiang have arrested 1,434 suspects over Sunday's deadly riot, including 1,379 men and 55 women. They are said to have conducted violent acts of killing, beating, smashing, looting and burning.
While those under arrest might be released if no serious criminal records were found, Li said authorities would not let pass those who were still at large.
Anti-terror expert: World Uyghur Congress behind Xinjiang violence
http://www.chinaview.cn
2009-07-07 19:56:34
BEIJING, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Evidence showed that World Uyghur Congress had masterminded Sunday's deadly violence in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a Chinese counter-terrorism expert told Xinhua Tuesday.
"Judging from what Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the World Uyghur Congress, had said and done, it is fair to say the organization masterminded the incident," said Li Wei, director of the Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.
"After the March 14 unrest in Tibet last year, Kadeer said in public that something similar should happen in Xinjiang. The riot in Urumqi bore some similarities with the March 14 incident."
Kadeer had been in close relations to the Dalai Lama, Li said, noting that the Xinjiang riot was regarded by experts as an "intentional imitation" of what happened in Lhasa.
"The riot was by no means incidental and spontaneous," he noted. "It was well organized as riots, targeting civilians, occurred at several locations at the same time."
Xinjiang police said Monday they had evidence that Rebiya Kadeer masterminded the Sunday riot, and had obtained recordings of calls between overseas Eastern Turkestan groups and their accomplices inside the country.
In the recorded calls, Kadeer said, "Something will happen in Urumqi." She also called her younger brother in Urumqi, saying, "We know a lot of things have happened," referring to the June 26 brawl involving workers from Xinjiang in a toy factory in Guangdong Province.
"This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China," Li said. "The World Uyghur Congress has chosen this specific time to do damage."
Production resumes in S China toy factory which was scene of deadly brawl
SHAOGUAN, Guangdong, July 7 (Xinhua) -- Production has resumed in the toy factory in south China's Guangdong Province where two Uygurs were killed in a brawl, according to local sources on Tuesday.
About 16,000 of the 18,000 workers at the Xuri Toy Factory in Shaoguan of Guangdong have returned to work by Tuesday, including more than 700 workers from the northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.
A dispute among factory workers led to a fight involving hundreds of people on the morning of June 26, leaving two dead and 118 injured.
Jin Ling, a female worker with the factory from Nanchang of east China's Jiangxi province, left the factory on June 27 but returned the next day.
"When I came back, I found the production line was open but many workers were absent," she recalled. On that day, only about 3,000 workers went to work.
LIFE OF UYGUR WORKERS
Sitting in her dormitory, which has a white mosquito tent, a red bedsheet, a round mirror and a textbook of mandarin Chinese, the 21-year-old Uygur girl Aysumgul Memet said she was learning while working.
"We were worried after the incident a few days ago, but now we are feeling better every day," she said.
Busa Regul was only 19 years old, but she is already head of a production group, in charge of gathering the products and registering them.
Although she said the work was tiring sometimes, the girl was satisfied with the salary -- 1,100 yuan to 1,600 yuan (161.8 to 235.3 U.S. dollars) a month.
"I want to learn more so as to find a better job in the future," she beamed.
According to Erbakri Turdi, Party chief of the Minxiang village of Shufu county in Xinjiang, many migrant workers from the region had complaint when they just arrived.
"But the local government is trying to comfort them," he said.
After the clash, Turdi said that they helped all the Uygur workers to make phone calls to their families.
"Unlike reports from some media, most of the workers from Xinjiang are now willing to continue working here," he said.
A 24-hour clinic was set up in the factory with instructions in the Uygur language. A doctor said that all the medicines were free of charge.
DENOUNCING THE LIE
In the early hours of Sunday, the Urumqi police department got a tip-off that there were calls on Internet forums for demonstrations.
The riot began around 8 p.m., when rioters started beating pedestrians and smashing buses. The violence soon spread to many other downtown areas.
Police said at least 156 people had died and more than 800 were injured in the riot.
Many workers in the Xuri Toy Factory were dissatisfied seeing some media citing the clash in the factory as the cause of the Urumqi riot on Sunday.
"We are so faraway from Xinjiang and I don't know why they make our factory the scapegoat," said Jin Ling, the worker from Jiangxi.
Her colleague Luo Shan also believed that the accusation was "unreasonable".
"The problem in our factory was that we couldn't understand each other's language," she said. "It lies with communication."
Despite the dispute, Luo said she would try to keep a good relationship with Uygur workers.
"We shared the same goal -- everybody is coming to earn a living," she said.
"I'd like to work with my colleagues, Hans and Uygurs alike."
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