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Chinese security forces chase off protesters during a demonstration - Source: Reuters -
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Security forces in far-west China's strife-hit city of Urumqi used tear gas to break up fresh protests on Friday, as thousands of Han Chinese demanded better security after a reported spate of attacks with syringes.
The protesters massed in the streets in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, for a second day to protest that authorities were too slow to punish Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people native to the energy-rich region, behind deadly riots on July 5.
The Han Chinese residents also said they were the targets of mysterious attacks with syringes .
Police vans continued patrolling streets with loudspeakers,
telling people to go home and maintain order. But with schools
closed and bus routes through the city interrupted by road blocks,
most in the crowds had little to do but mill about and break off
into brief protests.
"The main thing is nobody here feels secure any more," said Zhen
Guibin, a Han Chinese onlooker at one of the angry scenes. Many
people complained that those behind the killings on July 5 had not
been tried.
The official Xinhua news agency reported that "tear gas has been
deployed to disperse the protesters".
The government has also banned "unlicensed marches, demonstrations
and mass protests", Xinhua said, as authorities step up efforts to
stifle the unrest.
During Thursday's noisy protest crowds called for regional
Communist Party boss Wang Lequan to resign . Some
called for his execution.
Wang, who has held the region's most powerful position for the
last 14 years, had made no appearances in state media on Friday, as
of late afternoon.
Alarm spread in the city after government text messages a week ago
warned of attacks with syringes. Some parents were afraid to send
their children alone to classes when schools were open earlier in
the week.
"They have no right to block off the road like this. These Uighurs
have been stabbing us with needles," said a man trying to push
through barriers sealing off a Uighur neighbourhood. We need to
take care of the problem."
Paramilitary troops and police manoeuvred around the city to
diffuse the angry crowds gathered at intersections. Many in the
crowd tried to argue directly with police, calling for "more rights
for Han people".
A group of young Han Chinese men unfurled a Chinese flag and tried
to lead a march to People's Square, followed by several hundred
people shouting "safety". Police snatched away the flag, but the
crowd continued shouting.
The July 5 protest by Uighurs gave way to a spree of violence
across the city in which 197 people were killed, most of them Han
Chinese. Two days later, Uighur neighbourhoods were attacked by Han
Chinese demanding revenge.
"Terrorist crime"
Li Zhi, Urumqi's Communist Party boss, raised the political
stakes on Thursday by saying the syringe stabbings were part of a
plot by separatist forces to sow conflict, Xinhua said.
"This was a grave terrorist crime," Li said in a
speech.
"The goal was to create ethnic division and stir up ethnic
antagonism in a bid to overturn social order, split the motherland
and split the Chinese nation."
China says Uighurs campaigning for independence are allied with
Islamist militants in the region, and there have been occasional
deadly bomb attacks on government targets in Xinjiang.
Xinjiang's population is divided mainly between Uighurs, long the
region's majority group, and Han Chinese, many of whom moved there
in recent decades. Most Urumqi residents are Han.
The Xinjiang government, apparently trying to staunch anger,
announced on Thursday that 196 suspects have been charged over the
July riot. Fifty-one were indicted and will face
prosecution.
The government announced the indictments via text messages to
Urumqi residents from Wednesday evening, after a small protest that
day over the syringe attack reports. The announcement was reported
by Xinhua late on Thursday.
Some Han Chinese residents were unimpressed.
"I think the government has been way too lax towards the Uighurs,"
said a Han shop owner who identified himself as Zhang.
"This policy has got to change. We shouldn't have all these
minorities, we should only have one Chinese ethnicity."
Uighur residents said they were the victims of panic.
"There have been many Uighurs beaten up," said Arwa Quli, a Uighur
woman who paused on her way to work to watch the
crowds.
"If you just brush against someone, they might think that you
tried to stab them."
The Xinjiang health office has said that over the past two weeks
476 people have gone to hospital to report apparent syringe
stabbings - 433 of them Han Chinese. Regional television said
doctors had "found clear syringe marks in 89 cases".
Rumours of AIDS patients attacking people with hypodermic needles
have previously rattled parts of China, but were later shown to be
unfounded.
