Ethnic tensions and a government crackdown in western China have left more than 150 people dead and hundreds more injured. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports on what led to the violence between ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese in western China.
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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins, and this is The World.  The White House says it is concerned about the violence and death in China’s autonomous region of Xinjiang, and it called on all sides to show restraint. Riots broke out in the region Sunday night. Local officials say those riots left at least 156 people dead and more than 800 injured, mostly in the capital, Urumqi. And local police are said to be rounding up hundreds of Uighurs. Uighurs are a Muslim, ethnically Turkic group that’s losing its majority status in Xinjiang to Chinese immigration. The World’s Mary Kay Magistad reports from Beijing.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: Last night’s riots appear to have started as an orderly demonstration of a few hundred people.

[SOUND CLIP OF THE RIOT]

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: A video, taken on a shaky hand-held camera, was posted online, showing demonstrators marching in the middle of an Urumqi street. Uighur exile groups say these were Uighur college students, who were calling for an investigation into a June 26th fight between ethnic Han Chinese and ethnic Uighur workers at a toy factory on other side of the country, in Guangdong. It left two Uighurs dead. At the end of this video, you can hear the sirens of police arriving.  Eyewitnesses say, that’s when the demonstration turned into a riot.  Uighur groups say it was the police that used violence first.

ZHANG YULAN: Hello, and welcome to this news update on CCTV International. I’m Zhang Yulan, Beijing.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: The Chinese State-run media blame the Uighurs, and say the riots left 260 vehicles burned, 200 shops destroyed, 140 people dead, and more than 800 injured.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: An initial investigation shows the violence was masterminded by the separatist Group, World Uighur Congress.  The group is led by Rebiya Kadeer, a former businesswoman in China.  The group has recently been instigating unrest via the Internet, and by other means, calling on the rioters to be braver and to do something big.  The Xinjiang regional government says terrorism, separatism and extremism are behind the violence.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: The World Uyghur Congress has issued a statement saying Rebiya Kadeer had nothing to do with Sunday’s protest. But Kadeer, now in exile in Washington, D.C., has long been a voice for Uighur rights. She served years in prison for complaining to the government that Uighurs are treated as second-class citizens in their own land, by Han Chinese migrants, and by the government. She complained about this to me, in an earlier interview:

REBIYA KADEER: [TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH] So the Chinese settlers, they come to our land, take advantage of our natural resources, at the same times, they hate us for no reason. It’s the same in Tibet and in our own homeland.  And Chinese, they come, take advantage of everything that we have, and take away everything that we have, and they think they’re highly civilized than us.  They look down upon us.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: She said Uighur children are made to go to Mandarin Chinese schools, where they’re told that their own language is backward and useless.  She said, even Uighurs who learn Mandarin and graduate from college have a hard time getting hired by Han Chinese companies because they’re Uighurs

REBIYA KADEER: [TRANSLATED TO ENGLISH] And those who can’t get a job and complain about it write this or that about the government policy, is arrested one way or another by the authorities as even as a terrorist, then arrest, sentenced and tortured, some cased even executed.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: Kadeer said, the last time there were large-scale riots in Xinjiang, 12 years ago, some 15 thousand Uighurs protested, but four times that many were arrested, because the government went after not just the protesters, but also their relatives and friends. She said, some 11 thousand Uighurs were sentenced to life in prison, and more than 400 were executed. This time, the local government is also talking tough.  Nuer Baikeli is the chairman of the Xinjiang government.

NUER BAIKELI: [SPEAKS IN CHINESE]

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: He said, Sunday’s riots were obviously instigated from abroad, and carried out here.  People from different ethnic groups must open their eyes and not do things that make our enemies happy.  Here in Xinjiang, he said, security comes first. What that means today, on the ground, is that hundreds of Uighurs have been rounded up, police have cordoned off the city of Urumqi, and Internet service there has been suspended for three days. Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher with Human Rights Watch, says it’s important to watch what happens next.

NICHOLAS BEQUELIN: I think a key concern about this incident is to have some measure of accountability, about who is arrested, where people are detained, whether they’re given legal process.  In the case of Tibet, what we saw, on the opposite, was massive arrests and security sweeps for weeks. And up to today, there’s still hundreds of detainees that are unaccounted for.

MARY KAY MAGISTAD: There have also been reports of torture of detainees, as well as a general crackdown on religious and cultural activities. Taking the same approach in Xinjiang isn’t exactly going to help the Xinjiang government with what it says is its goal of promoting ethnic happiness and harmony in the region. But it may help with the central government’s goal of ensuring security for the all-important 60th anniversary of the Communist Party’s rule, on October first. That short-term thinking may cause more Uighur anger and frustration in the future, but the Party shows no sign of changing its approach. For The World, I’m Mary Kay Magistad in Beijing.

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