Home > News Archive > Fresh protests erupt in Urumqi after syringe attacks

Fresh protests erupt in Urumqi after syringe attacks

By Lucy Hornby | Reuters

Han Chinese run away as Chinese security forces chase them off during a demonstration at the centre of Urumqi in China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region on 4 September 2009. Thousands of Han Chinese protested in Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang, on Thursday. Some demanded the resignation of the region’s veteran Communist Party Secretary after a wave of claims that residents were victims of attacks with syringes.Reuters/Nir Elias/China

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 Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people native to the energy-rich region, behind deadly riots on 5 July.

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 5 July 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 Uyghurs have been stabbing us with needles,” said a man trying to push through barriers sealing off a Uyghur 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 5 July protest by Uyghurs gave way to a spree of violence across the city in which 197 people were killed, most of them Han Chinese. Two days later, Uyghur 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 Uyghurs 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 Uyghurs, 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 Uyghurs,” 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.”

Uyghur residents said they were the victims of panic.

“There have been many Uyghurs beaten up,” said Arwa Quli, an Uyghur 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.

Copyright © 2009 Reuters

Published in Reuters website