140 Killed in Riots in Western China

It was the bloodiest incident that Urumqi, in the autonomous region of Xinjiang, had seen in years. By the end of the clashes, over a hundred were dead and hundreds injured.

Some 3,000 demonstrators had taken to the streets on Sunday to call for an investigation into a fight between Uyghurs and Han Chinese workers at a factory in southern China last month that left two people dead.

There were eyewitness reports that police had opened fire and deployed armoured cars to disperse the protests on People's Square in Urumqi. Dozens found themselves behind bars when the police started rounding up alleged key figures.

Government blames Uyghurs in exile

The government blamed Uyghur groups in exile for inciting violence. State television showed images of rioters setting fires to cars and clashing with police.

On Monday, the governor of Xinjiang, Nuer Baikeli, made the following statement: “After the fight, some people incited others to go out onto the streets. Groups inside China used the Internet to call people to march onto Urumqi’s People’s Square. Some people did this on Sunday evening and demonstrated illegally. At the same time there were riots. Some uninformed civilians were also involved.”

The autonomous region of Xinjiang, in China’s extreme west, borders Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and Russia. Just over eight million of the 19 million inhabitants are Uyghurs. Most of them are Muslim. Next to Tibet, Xinjiang is the region in China where the local ethnic minority is most dissatisfied.

Supposedly to combat separatism and terrorism, the Chinese government has pursued a policy of mass immigration of Hans to the region over the past 50 years. The army has a strong presence.

Claims of anti-Uyghur discrimination

The local population claims it is discriminated against socially, culturally and economically. Beijing rejects such complaints by branding the Uyghur activists as separatist terrorists:

“The Chinese government has been trying to portray us as terrorists for years,” explains Asgar Can, the vice president of the World Uyghur Congress in Munich. “Last year, they said they had discovered a terrorist training camp. They should call for international observers and prove it. We think that the Chinese government is just staging it.”

On Monday, Dilxadi Rexiti, a spokesman for the Congress, also denied the government’s accusations that the protests in Urumqi had been orchestrated to incite violence: “The official statements are unfounded. The Chinese government wants to justify its military measures against the Uyghurs who demonstrated peacefully.”

He also called on China to officially apologise for its oppressive policies against Uyghurs and insisted that their demands be heard.

Meanwhile, the authorities said they had the city of Urumqi “under control” on Monday. Police continued to patrol the streets, which were largely empty, as shops remained close.

Author: Anne Thomas
Editor: Disha Uppal