Deep-seated ethnic tensions erupted into the deadliest outbreak of violence the country has seen since the Tiananmen Square massacre.The Chinese authorities yesterday blamed exiled Muslim Uighur separatists for trouble in the restive western province of Xinjiang which killed at least 156 people and injured hundreds more. But the government was in turn accused of heavy-handed repression which, according to the claim of one Uighur representative, may have left up to 400 people dead. The violence, which may have been the deadliest in China since Tiananmen Square in 1989, began in the regional capital Urumqi on Sunday night when tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese boiled over. State television showed images of rioters throwing rocks at police, smashing buses and setting fire to shops and cars, as well as bystanders holding faces streaming with blood. Burnt-out buildings and vehicles continued to smoulder yesterday, broken glass littered the roads and bloodstains dotted the concrete.It was the second major eruption of ethnic violence in China in less than 18 months. In March last year, protests and riots flared up in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, with authorities saying 19 people were killed and exile groups saying the real figure was 200. The latest trouble in Xinjiang also comes at an embarrassing time for the Communist Party in Beijing, just three months before it is due to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
The Chinese authorities yesterday blamed exiled Muslim Uighur separatists for trouble in the restive western province of Xinjiang which killed at least 156 people and injured hundreds more. But the government was in turn accused of heavy-handed repression which, according to the claim of one Uighur representative, may have left up to 400 people dead.
The violence, which may have been the deadliest in China since Tiananmen Square in 1989, began in the regional capital Urumqi on Sunday night when tensions between Uighurs and Han Chinese boiled over. State television showed images of rioters throwing rocks at police, smashing buses and setting fire to shops and cars, as well as bystanders holding faces streaming with blood. Burnt-out buildings and vehicles continued to smoulder yesterday, broken glass littered the roads and bloodstains dotted the concrete.
It was the second major eruption of ethnic violence in China in less than 18 months. In March last year, protests and riots flared up in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, with authorities saying 19 people were killed and exile groups saying the real figure was 200. The latest trouble in Xinjiang also comes at an embarrassing time for the Communist Party in Beijing, just three months before it is due to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China.
Never before has the Chinese state news agency responded so rapidly to a 'crowd incident' - Chinese state jargon for rioting. And Sunday's rioting in Urumqi, the capital of the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, was brutal, leaving 140 dead, 800 injured and hundreds of vehicles burnt out. News analysis by correspondent Marije Vlaskamp (translation mb). "You can travel to Xinjiang on a flight of your choice. If you register with your press card and give your flight number, we will have the authorities pick you up at the airport. This is necessary given the exceptional security measures," was the comment from a news agency spokeswoman. This is an unusual course of events. Normally, China shuts down access to areas of ethnic unrest as quickly as it can - Tibet and the surrounding provinces, for example. Last year after Tibetans rose up against Han Chinese rule, half of western China was almost hermetically sealed off by the security forces. There was no access for any independent observers. And a year after the rioting, China repeated the entire operation. Molested It was a foretaste of the kind of treatment Xinjiang can now expect, only the repression there will be even more severe. In the rioting in Lhasa 'only' 89 people were killed, while in Urumqi the figure is at least 140. How a peaceful demonstration was able to escalate so dramatically remains unclear. Thousands of Uighurs had assembled to make a protest to the authorities. They were demanding an investigation into the deaths of two fellow Uighurs who had been working in a factory town in southern China. They were beaten to death by Han Chinese, in response to a rumour that the Uighurs had molested a Han Chinese girl. When the police started rounding up demonstrators, the protest turned into an orgy of violence. Eyewitnesses report that there were people with clubs and knives among the demonstrators.
Never before has the Chinese state news agency responded so rapidly to a 'crowd incident' - Chinese state jargon for rioting. And Sunday's rioting in Urumqi, the capital of the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, was brutal, leaving 140 dead, 800 injured and hundreds of vehicles burnt out.
News analysis by correspondent Marije Vlaskamp (translation mb).
"You can travel to Xinjiang on a flight of your choice. If you register with your press card and give your flight number, we will have the authorities pick you up at the airport. This is necessary given the exceptional security measures," was the comment from a news agency spokeswoman. This is an unusual course of events. Normally, China shuts down access to areas of ethnic unrest as quickly as it can - Tibet and the surrounding provinces, for example. Last year after Tibetans rose up against Han Chinese rule, half of western China was almost hermetically sealed off by the security forces. There was no access for any independent observers. And a year after the rioting, China repeated the entire operation. Molested It was a foretaste of the kind of treatment Xinjiang can now expect, only the repression there will be even more severe. In the rioting in Lhasa 'only' 89 people were killed, while in Urumqi the figure is at least 140. How a peaceful demonstration was able to escalate so dramatically remains unclear. Thousands of Uighurs had assembled to make a protest to the authorities. They were demanding an investigation into the deaths of two fellow Uighurs who had been working in a factory town in southern China. They were beaten to death by Han Chinese, in response to a rumour that the Uighurs had molested a Han Chinese girl. When the police started rounding up demonstrators, the protest turned into an orgy of violence. Eyewitnesses report that there were people with clubs and knives among the demonstrators.
