TV images showed protesters rocking a bus and the bloodied faces of people (above) caught up in the riots, which are believed to have erupted following a protest by Uighurs. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
TV images showed protesters rocking a bus (left) and the bloodied faces of people caught up in the riots, which are believed to have erupted following a protest by Uighurs. -- PHOTO: REUTERS10 July, ST
URUMQI (CHINA): Violent riots erupted in China's restive Xinjiang region, killing at least 140 people in what is believed to be the country's worst ethnic unrest in decades.
More than 800 others were injured after the bloody clash between the police and ethnic minority Uighurs broke out on Sunday in the region's capital, Urumqi.
The authorities said there were 300 to 500 protesters, but other sources put the number at as high as 3,000.
The death toll was still rising, said the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Reports quoting witnesses said yesterday the unrest had spread to Kashgar, another Xinjiang city, where more than 300 people protested outside a mosque. No casualties were reported.
The unrest comes just 18 months after riots left at least 22 people dead in Tibet, another sensitive region in China.
The rioting is likely to alarm Beijing, coming just three months before events to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The riots were believed to have erupted following a protest by Uighurs demanding a probe into a clash between Han Chinese and Uighur factory workers in southern Guangdong province late last month which left two Uighurs dead.
Some accounts said the police turned violent when the assembly, which began peacefully, refused to disperse.
The Chinese government blamed the exiled World Uighur Congress (WUC) led by businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, living in exile in the United States, for instigating the riots. But the Sweden-based Congress rubbished the accusation.
Dramatic images of the violence broadcast by China's state television showed people being attacked, cars being smashed and smoke billowing from burning vehicles.
Footage showed a woman being kicked by two people as she lay on the ground. Others, who appeared to be Han Chinese, sat dazed and bloodied.
Local television showed graphic photographs of people killed in the riots, with the faces of some victims beaten into a bloody pulp, reported AFP. One man had his throat slit.
Xinhua did not specify the ethnic identities of those killed, or whether they were civilians or police.
But it said the People's Hospitals in Urumqi treated 291 people, of whom 17 died. Among them, 233 were Han Chinese, 39 were Uighurs, while the rest were from other ethnic minorities.
'This is the worst unrest I have seen since coming to Urumqi 12 years ago,' a Han Chinese motel employee told The Straits Times. 'It was sudden and I don't really know what happened. I'm quite scared.'
Chinese media quoted Xinjiang governor Nur Bekri describing the situation as 'still seriously complicated'.
Thousands of riot police officers and paramilitary policemen have locked down Urumqi and set up checkpoints to catch fleeing rioters, said Xinhua.
Several hundred suspected rioters were arrested, with police still searching for another 90 people.
Yesterday, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon led international calls for restraint in China.
Analysts say the violence highlighted the deeper problem of the Uighurs' resentment of the growing Han Chinese dominance in Xinjiang. The eight million Uighurs make up the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang, but not in Urumqi, which has attracted large numbers of Han Chinese migrants.
'The riots probably resulted from three sources of grievances,' said Professor Barry Sautman of the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
'One, the failure of the authorities to satisfactorily resolve the killing of Uighurs in the Guangdong factory. Two, economic disparities between Han migrants and Uighurs.
'Third, restrictions on religious practices, like forbidding Muslim university students to fast during Ramadan.'
shpeh@sph.com.sg
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