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Anger gives way to bitterness in Xinjiang
2009-07-08
URUMQI, China (Reuters) - The passionate anger of weekend riots gave way to cold bitterness on both sides of the ethnic divide in China's strife-torn Muslim region of Xinjiang on Thursday, and was likely to last long after the troops go. In the regional capital Urumqi, where 156 people were killed and 1,080 wounded on Sunday when minority Muslim Uighurs took to the streets and went on a rampage, some residents worried about how the two sides could co-exist. Shi Guanzheng, a retired teacher originally from Shanghai, dared not venture too far despite the heavy security presence. Shi blamed the government for failing to quickly quell protests by Han Chinese, the country's predominant ethnic group, on Tuesday, when they thronged parts of the city demanding revenge against Uighurs. "That should never have happened. It should have been nipped in the bud. The killings of innocent people is never justified, but now both sides are so filled with emotion that the repercussions will last a long time," he said. "I'm scared about what will happen when the (paramilitary) People's Armed Police have to leave. It's not about tomorrow or the next day. It's about next month or after. What then?" Xinjiang has long been a tightly controlled hotbed of ethnic tension, fostered by an economic gap between Uighurs and Han Chinese, government curbs on religion and culture and an influx of migrants who now are the majority in most key cities, including Urumqi. Beijing cannot afford to lose its grip on a vast territory that borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China's largest natural gas-producing region. PREPARED FOR TROUBLE Overnight in a Uighur neighborhood near the main bazaar, residents prepared for trouble, readying themselves with clubs. One middle-aged woman in a headscarf walked by carrying a machete and a carving knife mounted on a stick. Down the road a group of seven Uighur men built a makeshift barricade out of planks with broken shards of beer bottles gathered in front. "We're protecting ourselves," one of the men said. In an alley, residents said police had been rounding up Uighur men. A Reuters reporter saw a squad of about 20 police in anti-riot gear in the alley, and could hear what sounded like a door being broken down. Turkonate, a lean Uighur man in his 20s standing outside with several friends, said the police were taking away young men who had any recent injuries, who could not produce any identification or did not have the proper residence papers. "They're taking our people every day. I don't know how this is going to end." The continuing instability prompted President Hu Jintao to abandon plans to attend a G8 summit in Italy, and he returned home to monitor developments in energy-rich Xinjiang, where 1,434 people have been arrested in an ensuing crackdown. In a display of ethnic unity, state television showed Shanghai Communist Party boss Yu Zhengsheng and mayor Han Zheng visiting Uighur restaurants in the commercial hub of the country's financial capital. "If there is no stability or harmony, the lives of the people cannot get better and there will be no economic development," Yu was quoted as telling his Uighur hosts. The government has blamed Sunday's killings on exiled Uighurs seeking independence, especially Rebiya Kadeer, an activist who lives in exile in the United States. Kadeer, who has denied the accusations, told Reuters she believed more people had died than the government was admitting. "I hope there will be peace and restraint on both sides," she said. "Chinese officials stated that they will execute a lot of people and imprison even more, but such behavior will actually escalate the situation in the region." (Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Shanghai and Nadine Alfa in Washington; Editing by Benjamin Kang Lim)
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