Heavy security in China’s Xinjiang

URUMQI – An uneasy calm returned yesterday to China’s riot-hit Urumqi where 184 people died in ethnic violence a week ago, though the official tally of dead could rise, a regional official indicated.

Shops were open and heavy traffic returned to the streets of Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, where Uighurs, a largely Muslim people, rioted and attacked Han Chinese, who form the majority of China’s 1.3 billion population.Security forces massed in Uighur neighbourhoods yesterday as officials set stability as their top priority.According to the official count, 137 of those killed were Han Chinese and 46 were Uighurs who share cultural bonds with Central Asian peoples.The death toll could rise further. Xinjiang’s governor yesterday raised the number of injured to 1 680, of which 74 were critically injured, from the previous figure of about 1 000.On Saturday, Zhou Yongkang, the nation’s top leader in charge of security affairs, toured the southern Xinjiang cities of Kashgar and Hotan, calling for a ‘steel wall’ of security to ‘win the tough war of maintaining Xinjiang’s stability.’Authorities must ‘nip all hidden dangers in the bud,’ he said, and blamed the riot on ‘hostile forces’ at home and abroad.Local television aired constant appeals for ethnic harmony, while Internet access was still blocked throughout Xinjiang and telephone services were spotty.Uighurs in the local government feel under pressure from fellow Uighurs, following a week of sweeping detentions of Uighur men, said Alim, a Uighur working in the city government.Uighurs say many of the men swept up were innocent and had nothing to do with the rioting.’I am feeling under a lot of pressure because since July 5 they have arrested thousands. The families want them released early, especially because in Uighur families it’s the men who earn a living,’ Alim said.City officials in Urumqi increasingly put the blame for the riots on migrants from the much poorer south of Xinjiang, where Uighurs are still the majority of the population.’A large part of the criminals in the July 5 rioting were from cities 1 500 km away, like Kashgar and Hotan, which shows it was organised and planned in advance,’ China News Service said yesterday, quoting the city party secretary, Li Zhi.Uighurs make up 46 per cent of Xinjiang’s 21 million people, but accounted for the vast majority just a few decades ago.Many resent the Han Chinese influx and say these newcomers get too many of the jobs and wealth brought by development in the north, where military-run farms and oil and gas extraction dominate the economy.- Nampa-Reuters