AT least 156 people were killed and more than 800 injured in the worst
riots to hit northwest China's Xinjiang in decades, officials said
yesterday, adding that the death toll will probably rise.
Several dozens of bodies were retrieved from the streets of Urumqi,
capital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, while all the other
fatalities were confirmed at hospitals, Liu Yaohua, the region's
police chief, told a news conference yesterday.
A preliminary investigation determined that 203 shops and 14 homes
were destroyed in violence that began on Sunday night. Rioters burned
261 motor vehicles, including 190 buses, at least 10 taxis and two
police cars, Liu said. Several vehicles were still seen ablaze on
Urumqi's streets yesterday morning, he said.
By yesterday evening, police had arrested about 700 people in
connection with the riot, including at least a dozen who were
suspected of fanning the unrest.
Urumqi police said they learned early Sunday from Internet forums that
a demonstration would take place at 7pm to protest the handling of a
fight between Uygur and Han people in a toy factory in south China's
Guangdong Province.
Violence spreads
At 6:20pm, more than 100 people had gathered. Violence began around
8pm, when some rioters started beating pedestrians and smashing buses
on Heping Road, officials said.
The violence soon spread to many other downtown areas.
Authorities said buildings in the residential compounds of the traffic
police department and the taxation bureau in Tianshan District were
severely burned.
"It was like a war zone here, with many bodies of ethnic Han people
lying on the road," said Huang Yabo, deputy director of the Urumqi
Public Security Bureau.
Traffic blockades were partially lifted yesterday morning in parts of
the city, but tension still existed, with armed police patrolling some
areas, witnesses said.
Shops shut down
Most shops in areas where the violence occurred remained closed.
At a market on Guangming Road, only 10 vegetable and fruit stalls were
open yesterday, compared with dozens normally.
An initial investigation showed the violence was masterminded by the
separatist World Uyghur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer, according to
the regional government.
Rebiya Kadeer, a former businesswoman in China, was detained in 1999
on charges of harming national security. She was released on bail on
March 17, 2005, to seek medical treatment in the United States.
"The violence was ... instigated and directed from abroad, and carried
out by outlaws in the country," a government statement said yesterday.
According to the government, the World Uyghur Congress has been
stirring unrest via the Internet, calling on supporters "to be braver"
and "to do something big."
Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, said in a
televised speech yesterday morning that the "three forces of
terrorism, separatism and extremism" made use of a fight between Uygur
and Han ethnic workers in the toy factory in Guangdong Province on
June 26, in which two Uygur workers died, to create chaos.
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