By Megan E. Dodge
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia
XINJIANG, China– In July, Chinese police detained more than 1,500 people after violence between ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese left 200 dead.
The riots broke out on 5 July after an initially peaceful protest by Uighur youths, apparently prompted by an earlier riot in a factory in southern China. In the outbreak of violence, shops were smashed and vehicles set alight and passers-by set upon rioters.
The Chinese government says 197 people died and more than 1,700 were injured. It maintains that most of the dead were Han Chinese, but the exile activist group, the World Uighur Congress, claims many Uighurs were also killed. The government has insisted the violence which followed was engineered by Uighurs in exile, chiefly World Uighur Congress leader Rebiya Kadeer. The far west autonomous region borders Russia, Mongolia, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. Many Uighurs in this area want more autonomy and respect for their culture and religion, Islam, than China’s strict centrist rule permits.
This incident is described as one of the most serious incidents of ethnic unrest in the country’s recent history. To much of the world’s surprise, China remained open about the events and was willing to allow reporters media access. Zhou Bing, a political commentator in Hong Kong, said this represents a loosening of the controls the foreign media might have expected in such circumstances. According to Bing, “They wanted the rest of the world to understand that this was a clash between two ethnic groups, rather than a separatist movement, to frame it as people fighting over local issues, not independence.” However, as tension mounted, China wanted to ensure that, within its own borders, its coverage did not further inflame ethnic tensions, and as such, media restrictions were thereby imposed.
The China Daily said that most of the arrests were made in Urumqi and Kashgar, a southern Xinjiang city with a heavy concentration of Uighur people. Charges include vandalizing public property and transport, organizing crowds to cause bodily harm to others, robbery, murder and arson. The state newspaper did not give a breakdown on how many Uighurs and how many Han would go on trial, but it said more than 170 Uighurs and 20 Han lawyers had been assigned to the suspects.
Four months later, China and the rest of the world await to hear the final outcome. The city’s procuratorate said it has instituted public prosecutions in the Intermediate People’s Court of Urumqi against 21 suspects. A woman from the political department of the Urumqi Intermediate Court confirmed that charges had been issued, but would not her name or any details. The report did not say what the penalty those charged would face if convicted, but just after the riots, Urumqi’s Community Party, Secrtary Li Zhi, said that the death penalty would be sought in some of the serious cases.
For more information, please see:
China View: Xinhua News Agency – 21 suspects involved in Urumqi riot prosecuted – September 25, 2009
China Daily – Top Xinjiang official stresses development to ensure stability – September 29, 2009
BBC – China ‘to charge 83 over riots’ – August 4, 2009
The Associated Press – China charges 21 with murder in July riots – September 25, 2009
