Peaceful Uyghur demonstrators met with a violent police crackdown, exile groups report
At least 140 people have been killed and hundreds more arrested following clashes in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region, home to the country’s Uyghurs, a Turkic-speaking, predominantly Muslim ethnic group.
The World Uyghur Congress, a grantee of the National Endowment for Democracy, explained that the peaceful protests were organized in response to a recent attack on Uyghur workers at a toy factory in Guangdong:“
On Sunday, July 5, 2009, Uyghur students organized a protest in Urumchi to express discontent with the Chinese authorities’ response to the mob killing and beating of Uyghur workers at a toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong on June 26, 2009. The aim of the protesters was to seek justice for the victims in Shaoguan and to express sympathy with the families of those killed and injured.
Reports indicate that between 1,000 to 3,000 protestors marched through the Döng Körük (Erdaoqiao) area of Urumchi on July 5, 2009, some of whom were waving the flag of the People’s Republic of China. The protestors were met by a fierce Chinese government response to quell the protest, which included the deployment of four kinds of police (regular police, anti-riot police, special police and the People’s Armed Police). Protest participants, who wish to remain anonymous for safety reasons, have indicated in phone conversations with the Uyghur Human Rights Project (UHRP) that an unknown number of Uyghurs were fired upon by Chinese authorities and killed.
“There are big parallels with what happened in Tibet … the government has started applying the same reading to this event,” said Nicholas Bequelin, of Human Rights Watch. “That is (they are saying) that the causes of this event are a plot by foreign forces with an exile at their head, and that the blame is entirely apportioned on the demonstrators.”
“The root cause of the problem is really the Chinese government’s long-standing repressive policies,” he said.
“This will bring a negative impact on China’s image as a responsible power,” said Zheng Yongnian, director of the East Asian Institute at the National University of Singapore. “If you use coercion alone it will worsen the problem.”
Taking a leaf from the Iranian authorities’ book, the government has blamed the unrest on foreign actors and jammed Twitter and internet communications.
The communist authorities blamed exile groups for the largely Muslim province’s most serious unrest in years. Officials claim that Rebiya Kadeer, a Uyghur businesswoman-turned-dissident, is ”masterminding” the unrest. She was jailed in China before being released into exile where she heads the World Uyghur Congress, which campaigns for Uyghur rights.
“It is common practice for Beijing to blame outsiders for any problems in Xinjiang, as it does with problems in Tibet,” said Alim Seytoff, a spokesman for the pressure group.
“The East Turkestan [Xinjiang] issue has reached a critical juncture and the Chinese government must act now to address Uyghur concerns”, Kadeer said today.
“Uyghurs have long chafed at restrictions on their civil liberties and religious practices imposed by a Chinese government fearful of political dissent in strategically important Xinjiang,” The Wall Street Journal reports.
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