The World’s Mary Kay Magistad has an update on the mood in the Chinese city of Urumqi, where 184 people were killed during riots this week. The riots have ended, but the government re-imposed a nighttime curfew today.
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Unrest in western China

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JEB SHARP: I’m Jeb Sharp and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI and WGBH, Boston. China’s Xinhua news agency now says 184 people were killed during riots in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region in the past week. And, it says most of those killed were Han Chinese. Up to now, it’s been reporting 156 deaths and did not give ethnic breakdowns. And, the government re-imposed a nighttime curfew in Urumqi. And the World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports that a small disturbance around one of the city’s mosques may have brought the curfew.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: Most mosques in Urumqi were closed today.  In front of one of them was a sign that read:  Because of the recent situation, and for the security of the Muslim masses and the mosques, and so as not to give opportunity to the violent terrorists, the local government has decided that today’s prayers will not be held in the mosques, but should be held in people’s homes.  We hope the Muslim masses will understand, and tell each other.”  Near this particular mosque, a group of young Uighers said they did not understand, and did accept the edict.

[SOUND CLIP OF UIGHERS TALKING ALL AT ONCE]

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: They said they’d go to the mosque at prayer time regardless, even though it was padlocked shut. They might not have gotten in, but at the White Mosque, near Urumqi’s old bazaar, Muslims arriving with their prayer rugs did argue their way in.  After prayers, they hung out in clusters.  Foreign journalists, some with video cameras, interviewed some of them, including an emotional young Uigher woman.

UIGHER WOMAN: Our people are afraid, all the time, all the time might die, every time.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: As she grew more emotional, the crowd grew, and became emotional too.

UIGHER WOMAN: Our people, two hundred, two hundred Uighers people die.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: They started shouting out their grievances about how Uighers have been treated in recent days.  They said Uighers have been killed in retaliation for the riots last Sunday, but no one talks about that. The government just blames the Uighers for everything. By now, about 50 people had gathered in a loud and emotional cluster, and hundreds more were looking on, so were the police.  They lined up within view of the crowd, and the crowd started to move on down the sidewalk.    But as they went, they pumped their fists in the air and shouted, “Free our relatives!  Free the innocent people!” That lasted about five minutes, before heavily armed military police arrived. They pointed their guns at the demonstrators and at everyone nearby, and told them to crouch on the ground.

[SOUND CLIP OF A MAN YELLING]

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: The commander was particularly annoyed to see foreign journalists, including me. Following a distance behind the group, he told me to clear out, complaining about foreign journalists causing trouble.  At least two foreign journalists were detained.  More police and military vehicles arrived, a helicopter hovered overhead.  Police punched and kicked some of the demonstrators, and piled them into police vans.  And within a couple of hours, a government that had said just yesterday that it had everything under control, decided to re-impose an overnight curfew. The heavy reaction to this seemingly small event shows how much on edge Urumqi still is.  Many Uighers and Han Chinese say they’re still afraid, and some are still angry. But many on both sides say they’d like nothing better than for Urumqi to be peaceful again. Some Uigher shop owners told me today, they don’t mind the police presence if it helps everyone calm down. But one of them also said, “My heart is broken. It will be very difficult to recover from this.”  For The World, I’m Mary Kay Magistad in Urumqi.

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