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Urumqi chief sacked, China says the city under control

By Lucy Hornby | Reuters

Li Zhi, the sacked secretary of the Urumqi Municipal Committee of the Communist Party of China, in a file photo taken in 7 July 2009. Li was sacked on 5 September state media said, following mass protests that left five people dead after a spate of mysterious syringe attacks.File photo/Xinhua/Sadat/China

China sacked the top official of Urumqi, the strife-hit capital of far-west Xinjiang, on Saturday, as the city crept back to an uneasy normality after days of sometimes deadly protests that have inflamed ethnic enmity.

The brief announcement from the official Xinhua news agency did not explain why the city’s Communist Party Secretary, Li Zhi, was dismissed and replaced by Zhu Hailun, the head of Xinjiang region’s law-and-order committee.

But Li presided over the city during deadly ethnic unrest between Han Chinese and Muslim Uyghur residents on 5 July when at least 197 people died, most of them Han killed by Uyghurs.

The far-west city has been under heavy security after three days of fresh unrest this week, when thousands of Han Chinese residents protested over a rash of reported syringe stabbings they blamed on Uyghurs, a Muslim people who call this region their homeland.

Officials have said five people were killed in protests on Thursday, but have given only fleeting details about them.

The dismissal came as Urumqi returned to something like calm, topping a week that has seen crowds of Han Chinese protesters turn against the region’s top Communist officials.

Troops used tear gas to break up a crowd of people, mostly Han Chinese by appearance, gathered near city government offices in Urumqi on Saturday, footage from Cable TV of Hong Kong showed.

But elsewhere in the city, shops, buses and roads began to come back to life, watched over by thousands of police and anti-riot troops, many of them barring Han Chinese residents from Uyghur neighbourhoods.

Talk of fresh syringe attacks persisted on Saturday. Dozens of Han Chinese near the city center complained that troops took away an Uyghur man they accused of stabbing a child.

The spasm of unrest has alarmed the central government, coming less than a month before China marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on 1 October, and officials have cast the stabbings as a separatist plot by Uyghurs.

“Saboteurs may be planning more unnerving disruptions to create a sense of insecurity as the nation counts down to its major celebration of the 60th anniversary,” said an editorial in the China Daily, the country’s flagship English-language paper.

At least 197 people died in Urumqi when a protest by Uyghurs on 5 July gave way to riots and killings that China called a separatist attack. Most of the dead were Han Chinese, and in the recent protests Han residents have voiced anger that Uyghurs accused of rioting have yet to be tried.

Troops also used tear gas on Friday to disperse crowds of Han residents who called for the regional party secretary to resign after the hundreds of claimed syringe attacks.

The minister for police, Meng Jianzhu, flew to Urumqi to oversee security.

“The needle-stabbing attacks of recent days were a continuation of the 5 July incident,” Meng said, according to the official People’s Daily on Saturday. “Their goal is to wreck ethnic unity and create splits in the motherland.”

Distant ideal

But in Urumqi, ethnic harmony seemed a distant ideal, with the panic over the claimed needle attacks entrenching mutual fear between Uyghurs and Han Chinese.

Xinjiang’s population of 21 million is divided mainly between Uyghurs, long the region’s majority, and Han Chinese, many of whom moved there in recent decades, drawing Uyghur complaints that Han get the best jobs.

Most Urumqi residents are Han Chinese.

“Now, no matter whether you are Han Chinese or of an ethnic minority, you feel different from the past,” said Wupuer, a 46-year-old Uyghur resident. “There is a sense of insecurity.”

Uyghur residents spoke of harassment by police and civilians.

“Look at how the security forces are allowing the Chinese to protest. If a Uyghur does anything at all, any Chinese citizen can call the police,” said a Uyghur man, Ali, adding that he had been detained for 48 hours in late July.

But security forces across Urumqi must now also keep a close watch on Han Chinese residents, long seen as reliably loyal to the government.

Xinjiang’s Communist Party secretary, Wang Lequan, and his officials have long focused on fears of Uyghur separatism and appeared caught off guard by the surge of Han Chinese unrest.

Han residents have directed their ire at Wang and other officials. Some seeking to enter Uyghur neighbourhoods or march on government offices called security forces “traitors” for blocking their way.

“When they curse us, we feel wronged and heartbroken,” a plainclothes military cameraman said on Friday. “We are also here to protect the people. Still, they ask why we are suppressing them when we didn’t protect them on 5 July.”

But Han Chinese residents said their anger over the 5 July killings had not waned.

“Things are returning to normal. People feel they’ve made their voices heard,” said Cao Yang, a Han Chinese college student who said he joined in protests on Thursday.

“But it’s a problem if you have to take to the streets in such numbers to force any response from the government.”

Copyright © 2009 Reuters

Published in Reuters website