Despite tight security, ethnic violence could flare again in Xinjiang region, writes CLIFFORD COONANAin Urumqi
A PHALANX of paramilitary police armed with shields and long steel pipes sharpened into spears stands guard on the border zone dividing the neighbourhoods of Urumqi’s Muslim Uighurs from those of the Han Chinese majority in the city.
The situation remains very tense, with tales of horror on both sides of the ethnic divide, and you sense it could explode into violence again very easily.
The security presence is overwhelming, and the People’s Armed Police bristle with weapons. Many carry clubs, some with nails protruding from the ends, while front-line riot police wear body armour and tote machine guns and pump-action shotguns. AK-47s with bayonets fixed are common.
Hundreds of People’s Armed Police now patrol the area where, on July 5th, hundreds of Uighur protesters attacked Han Chinese, who make up more than 90 per cent of the nation’s population, smashing up shops and setting fire to buses.
Two days after that, thousands of Han took to the streets armed with machetes and steel bars, seeking revenge. Police fired tear gas and formed barricades to stop them from entering Urumqi’s Uighur neighbourhoods.
All told, 184 people, 137 of them Han Chinese, died in the clashes.
On Monday, at a mosque near the Grand Bazaar, police shot and killed two men and wounded a third after what the government said was a fight between a group of Uighurs. Others say the men ran out of the mosque and attacked the police, in what was almost a suicide mission. It shows just how volatile the situation remains.
People are wary of talking to foreign media, but some are keen to get their message across. For Han Chinese, the violence signals a change in their way of life in Xinjiang, which means “New Border” in Chinese.
A young Han Chinese doctor, surnamed Zhang, plays with her infant son on the street. “I was born in Xinjiang, my family lives here, and although we are Han Chinese, our Uighur neighbours always treated us well. This was a safe place. This riot on July 5th was unexpected,” she says.
“Our good life here is ruined. Since this riot, my ability to trust strange Uighurs has vanished,” she adds.
Most of the victims of the violence who came to her hospital were Han Chinese, including a four-year-old child.
Three Uighur women walk along the street where shops are slowly opening their shutters again after the violence. The older woman wears a headscarf, and the two younger women wear the Urumqi fashions of today, pedal-pushers and Converse trainers.
“When the riot happened, I was taking an exam in university,” says one of the women, a 20-year-old student who gives her Chinese name, Xiati Guli.
“I do not understand how and why this riot happened. The relationship between us Uighurs and the Han Chinese used to be good. Since the riot, every time I see Han Chinese, I feel very sorry for them in my heart.”
Despite her moderate tone, there is a broader sense that the Uighur youth is becoming more radicalised.
Uighurs account for nine million of Xinjiang’s 20 million residents, and they are angry at the influx of Han Chinese into the region.
They feel local resources are being exploited without enough payback, even though China says it has made great efforts to raise living standards. Uighurs accuse Han of discrimination and of trying to erase their language and culture.
The internet is still blocked in Urumqi, a city of 2.3 million people, while mobile phone text messaging and international telephone calls are also still disabled, presumably to stop Uighurs getting in touch with overseas groups, which Beijing blames squarely for the violence.
The focus of much of the Beijing government’s wrath has been the prominent exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer, whom the Chinese blame for inciting the riot.
At one point, a convoy of police vehicles passes down the street with loudspeakers blaring slogans denouncing Ms Kadeer. There are parallels with last year’s violence in Tibet. Chinese newspapers have run photographs of the Dalai Lama meeting Ms Kadeer.
The government has launched a major publicity campaign which outlines the achievements of the Communist Party in the region in the last 60 years. These have included stories about police efforts to combat the “three forces” of terrorism, separatism and religious extremism, and to ensure stability.
The way Beijing handles the Uighur issue has major ramifications for its relationship with Muslim countries all over the world, and there were reports yesterday that al-Qaeda’s North African wing had vowed to avenge the deaths of Muslim Uighurs by targeting Chinese workers in Algeria. There are 50,000 Chinese workers in Algeria, and Chinese nationals and projects are located across northwest Africa.
Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan has been strident in criticising the way the Uighurs have been treated. The Uighurs are a Turkic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with Turkey and Central Asia.
Mr Erdogan said that "genocide" was being committed in Xinjiang, prompting the English-language China Dailynewspaper to write in an editorial that the fact that the majority of victims were Han Chinese "speaks volumes for the nature of the event".