Police fire tear gas as race riots loom in Xinjiang
(07-07 16:27)
Riot police fired tear gas to disperse rock-throwing Han and Uygur protesters who clashed in the capital of the Muslim region of Xinjiang two days after ethnic unrest left 156 dead and more than 1,000 wounded.
Hundreds of protesters from China's predominant Han ethnic group, many clutching meat cleavers, metal pipes and wooden clubs, smashed shops in Urumqi owned by Uygurs, a Turkic largely Islamic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia.
Some Han Chinese protesters shouted ''attack Uygurs'' as both sides hurled rocks at each other.
''They attacked us. Now it's our turn to attack them,'' a man in the crowd said.
''The Uygurs came to our area to smash things, now we are going to their area to beat them,'' one protester, who was carrying a metal pipe, said.
Thousands of heavily armed police deployed across Urumqi.
But despite a security clampdown involving police with submachine guns, shotguns and batons, mobs of Han Chinese marched through Urumqi including some wielding bricks, chains and bats who vowed revenge against Uygurs.
Police repeatedly fired volleys of tear gas, but many of the demonstrators refused to yield ground despite their eyes streaming and their throats welling with pain.
Anti-riot police armed with clubs and shields pushed protesters away from an Uygur neighbourhood but Han protesters briefly broke through police lines.
Uygurs protesting against the arrest of relatives also clashed with police. Many were women, wailing and waving the identity cards of husbands, brothers or sons they say were arbitrarily seized in a sweeping reaction to Sunday's rioting in Urumqi.
''My husband was taken away yesterday by police. They didn't say why. They just took him away,'' a woman who identified herself as Maliya said.
The crowd began to march towards the Xinjiang regional government, saying the government was too weak.
''Now it's time to go to the government,'' one protester surnamed Zhang said.
Some protesters vowed defiance and denounced the arrests after the protest in Saimachang, a neighbourhood on the outskirts of Urumqi with small shops and brick-and-mud homes along dusty alleys.
Abdul Ali, a Uygur man in his twenties who had taken off his shirt, held up his clenched fist.
''They've been arresting us for no reason, and it's time for us to fight back,'' he said.
Ali said three of his brothers and a sister were among 1,434 suspects taken into police custody. State television showed victims in hospital and burnt cars and shops. Of the 156 killed, 27 were women.
Urumqi Communist Party boss Li Zhi defended the crackdown.
''It should be said that they were all violent elements who wielded clubs and smashed, looted, burned and even murdered at the scene,'' he said.
But he also said some may have been ``swindled or deceived'' and that ''if they engaged only in minor crimes and looting, they will be released after undergoing education.''
AGENCIES
• Combo pictures show, from top, a mob of Han Chinese on the march in Urumqi and Uygur protesters pleading and demanding police free their relatives. |
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