Five people were sentenced to death in Urumqi, in the far western province of Xinjiang Thursday 3 December. The men were accused of murdering a police officer and killing bystanders during the worst ethnic riots in China in July. The riots erupted when ethnic Uighurs rampaged through the city, killing up to 200 ethnic Han Chinese, before order was restored. The accused had Uighur-sounding names and the proceedings were held in Uighur.
The trial began in October against 21 people accused of having taken part in July’s riots. Nine people have since been executed.
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The US, which has in the past been outspoken about human rights violations in China, has made no official comment on the 15 October death sentences handed out in China. The sentences were given to people convicted of murder following the riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, in July 2009. Nearly 200 people died and an estimated 1,600 were injured in the ethnic riots that gripped the city for several days. RiaNovosti, US State Department, Xinhua
Police in Urumqi, in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, have put down a third day of protests. Up to 2,000 people, mainly Han Chinese, it appears, have reportedly gathered in squares in the centre of the city, scene of ethnic riots in July between the local minority Han Chinese and the majority Uygurs. The protests are about a series of stabbings with hypodermic needles. Chinese state media says that 476 people from nine ethnic groups have sought hospital treatment for stab wounds, “of whom 89 were showing obvious signs of needle wounds.” BBC, Xinhua
Local government officals ordered several major mosques in the Chinese city of Urumqi, in Xianjing province to close 10 July. Thousands of troops are maintaining an armed presence in the city after riots by Uighur residents five days ago and subsequent revenge attacks by the Han Chinese left 156 people dead and over a thousand injured. Many smaller mosques in predominantly Uighur neighbourhoods have opened. Friday is the holy day for the Uighurs, who are Sunni Muslim and represent about 45 percent of the region’s population after heavy immigration by Han Chinese since the 1950s.
Chinese president Hu Jintao abruptly left the G8 meeting in Italy 7 July and returned to China in order to deal with the deadly violence in the far western Xianjing region, which saw 156 people die 5 July. Hu was expected to join the meeting in Italy’s L’Aquila Thursday 8 July. Chinese authorities imposed a night-time curfew on the city of Urumqi, scene of the rioting and have massively increased the security presence on the streets in an effort to keep ethnic Han and Uighurs apart. Ethnic tensions in Tibet in July 2008 caused a worldwide outcry over Chinese handling of the situation. BBC, Reuters, Xinhua
Update 12:25 The capital of the Chinese western province of Xinjiang appears to be turning into a battleground, with thousands (AFP reports 10,000) of Han Chinese, a minority in the region but the majority in China, taking to the streets armed with sticks, bats, chains and other handy weapons, ready to fight after their neighbourhoods were attacked by Uighurs, the local population’s majority group, over the weekend of 4-5 July. The government has imposed a strict curfew and police are out in force in the city following the arrest of 1,434 people by Monday. A small group of 200 protestors, mainly women and children, took to the streets Tuesday morning to plead with police, saying their relatives had been unfairly accused.
More than 150 people died in the weekend violence, mainly Han Chinese, according to official sources, although “Uighur groups”, reports the BBC, say the numbers are higher and the dead are mainly Uighurs, a Muslim minority. The unrest appears to have been sparked by a dispute in June between Uighurs and Han in a factory in southeastern China but the government says it has “evidence that separatist World Uighur Congress leader Rebiya Kadeer masterminded the riot.” Official news agency Xinhua reports clashes and “chaos” breaking out in other parts of the province Tuesday morning and it mentions that the Chinese embassy in Brussels was damaged by supporters of Xinjiang separatists Monday. The embassy has remained closed Tuesday.
