Han Protesters Paralyze Capital of Xinjiang

Han Protesters Paralyze Capital of Xinjiang
By EDWARD WONG and XIYUN YANG
Copyright by The New York Times
Published: September 4, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/05/world/asia/05china.html?_r=1&ref=global-home


BEIJING — The capital of the western Chinese region of Xinjiang remained paralyzed on Friday as ethnic Han protesters continued to rally to call for a clampdown on Uighurs, causing the government to close schools, offices and shops to keep people off the streets and to block traffic from the city center. The police used tear gas to disperse protesters, and loud booms from the firing of gas canisters could be heard from the city center, witnesses said.

Helicopters were seen overhead in the morning in Urumqi, the regional capital, one day after tens of thousands of Han, the dominant ethnic group in China, took to the streets to demand that the government prevent alleged hypodermic needle stabbings by Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people who are largely Muslim, according to a report by Xinhua, the state news agency.

The Han said the needles were infected with H.I.V. The Xinhua report said more than 476 people had reported stab wounds in recent days, and 89 of those had been treated for actual injuries by health workers, but none had shown symptoms of infectious diseases.

Groups of protesters continued to gather in front of the offices of the regional government to demand the resignation of Wang Lequan, the top Communist Party official in Xinjiang, an oil-rich and ethnically fractious region that makes up one-sixth of China. The Han protesters said Mr. Wang had failed to make the city safe for Han residents after mobs of Uighurs went on a rampage on July 5, beating and killing scores of civilians.

Mr. Wang, a proponent of hard-line ethnic minority policies who has ruled Xinjiang for 15 years, is a member of the ruling Politburo, and the outcry against him is a rare attack on a member of the country’s governing elite.

The rioting on July 5 was the deadliest outbreak of ethnic violence in China in decades, leaving at least 197 people dead and 1,721 wounded, according to government statistics. That initial riot began after police officers clashed with Uighurs who were protesting the government’s handling of an earlier ethnic brawl in southern China.

The violence brought to the surface the malice and resentment that have long coursed through society in Xinjiang. Uighurs complain that the ruling Han oppress them in a variety of ways; Han say the Uighurs are ungrateful for the benefits that Han governance has brought to the region.

In the days after the July outburst of Uighur anger in Urumqi, Han vigilantes went into Uighur neighborhoods to take revenge. The government has not said how many Uighurs were killed or wounded in these attacks.

Security forces have been deployed in large numbers throughout parts of Urumqi since that spate of violence. Yet talk of the needle attacks spread quickly in recent days, fueled by official news reports on the assaults. Local authorities told Chinese reporters that the police had arrested 21 suspects.

As outrage poured into the streets, starting with a small protest on Wednesday, the government deployed more security forces around the city and tried to delete mentions of the needle attacks from the Internet. Li Zhi, the party secretary of Urumqi, showed up at various sites on Thursday to try to calm protesters.

“The current situation is that a very few hostile elements are maliciously sabotaging the capital’s stability,” he said. “Their goal is to create ethnic estrangement and incite ethnic opposition.”

On Friday, groups of angry young Han men shoved lines of police officers to try to get to the main Uighur quarter. Han mobs tried doing the same two days after the July 5 riot.

“The situation is even more tense than it was yesterday,” a Han driver in Urumqi said on Friday. “The entire downtown has been cut off from incoming traffic. There are no buses running, either.”

The driver, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used, said he saw a Han mob beating a Uighur woman on Thursday.

“These people are just so angry,” he said.