CHINESE SECURITY forces put on a show of strength in the capital of Xinjiang province yesterday as Hu Jintao, China’s president, cut short his trip to Italy for the G8 summit to return home and deal with continuing ethnic violence.
Helicopters hovered, loudspeaker vans broadcast messages urging calm and hundreds of paramilitary officers marched around the city chanting. Hundreds more guarded the perimeter of the city’s largely Uighur area, several with bayonets. Water cannon could be seen on the streets and security forces were armed with guns, crossbows, riot shields and batons.
Li Zhi, head of Urumqi’s communist party, pledged yesterday to execute those responsible for the 156 or more deaths in vicious attacks on Sunday. More than 1,100 people were wounded and more than 1,400 have been arrested. But in a sign of continuing tension, Han Chinese residents turned on security forces who stopped their attack on a Uighur man in the afternoon.
A witness said members of a crowd numbering in the hundreds lashed out at paramilitary police as they pulled out ringleaders. Some asked why they were protecting Uighurs.
Since Sunday, there have been brutal Uighur attacks on Han and Han attacks on Uighur. But the growing security presence in the city meant authorities could use tear gas to disperse a large Han mob – armed with meat cleavers, metal bars and other weapons – as they tried to force their way into a predominantly Uighur area yesterday.
The government has given no details of injuries or deaths in the last day and has not offered a breakdown of the overall death toll by ethnicity. “Most of the public were quite restrained,” Mr Li said of yesterday’s unrest, addressing a press conference.
“A handful of Han attacked Uighurs and there were a handful of Uighurs who attacked Han. This handful of violent elements has been caught by the police and now the situation has been quelled.”
An overnight curfew appeared to have calmed the situation yesterday morning, but both ethnic groups feared further violence.
“There’s too big an emotional conflict between Han and Uighur people,” said shop owner Cai Jixing.
Other Han said they were still bitterly angry about Sunday’s violence. Few businesses in the centre of Urumqi were open yesterday, but a sizable number of residents were out and about.
Some applauded as security forces marched past. In Uighur areas, the streets were busy and one man said he felt safer because paramilitary police were protecting them from Han.
But another said: “We don’t dare go into the city because of the look in their eyes.
“When the Han see Uighurs or other minority people, their eyes don’t look right. They look like they want to eat us up. They look very evil.”
There was no official curfew last night but vans broadcast messages urging people to go home and ignore rumours.
Chinese authorities have cut internet connections and text messaging services in Urumqi, possibly because wild stories often spread at speed by those means. State media have also published editorials calling for calm.
The authorities have accused Uighur exiles of orchestrating the initial outbreak of violence. The World Uighur Congress has denied the claims and in turn accused security forces of killing demonstrators in a brutal crackdown on peaceful protests.
While Uighurs in the city have a number of complaints about the authorities, from government policies in general to mass arrests this week, none of those spoken to by reporters so far have suggested people died at the hands of security forces. – (Guardian service)