Ethnic riots rock China’s Uighur area, 27 killed

[Vikrant]

BEIJING: At least 27 people have died, 10 of them in police firing, following a communal clash in China's restive Xinjiang region bordering Pakistan and Central Asia on Wednesday morning. The deaths include those of nine policemen.

Official sources said police opened fire after a mob armed with knives attacked police stations and a local government building in Turpan prefecture of the western China province, which has a large population of Uyghurs, who are Turkic Muslims.

State media said violence by knife wielding mobs had already killed eight civilians and nine security personnel in Lukwun, a remote township in Turpan, 200kms from the regions's capital of Urumqi, when police opened fire killing 10 rioters. The rioters stabbed people and set police cars alight, state media said quoting local officials.

This is the second major case of violence since last April when 21 people including 10 policemen were killed. Xinjiang has been the scene of a violent agitation for splitting China to create an East Turkmenistan nation. The worst case of bloodshed took place in 2009 when 200 people were killed.

Local officials have in the past cited Taliban bases in Pakistan as the source of training and arms used by Uyghur separatists but the Chinese foreign ministry has defended Pakistan's "battle against terrorism".

...

Ethnic riots rock China?s Uighur area, 27 killed - The Times of India

 

[Unkotare]

The Uighur are not to be trifled with. The Han Chinese have always known this. That's why the PRC tends to overreact to any incidents that arise in Xingjian.

 

[Vikrant]

BEIJING, JUNE 27:
Two Uighur exile groups on Thursday urged an independent investigation of the death of 27 people in China’s far western region of Xinjiang, while a report said 12 more Uighurs died in an earlier explosion.

Chinese state media said at least 27 people died after attacks on police stations, a local government building and a construction site early on Wednesday in Xinjiang’s Lukqun township, some 250 kilometres south-east of the regional capital, Urumqi.

Police “opened fire and shot dead 10 rioters” after the assailants had “stabbed at people and set fire to police cars,” killing 17 people, reports quoted regional officials as saying.

Some state media called the attacks a “terrorist incident,” but the reports gave few details of the violence, while the local and central governments made no statement on the attacks.

The fact that the only reports on the violence came from Chinese state media “should give cause for the international community to seek more details on this incident,” said Alim Seytoff, president of the Washington-based Uighur American Association.

“In order to ensure no violations of human rights have occurred, a full and independent investigation is required,” Seytoff said.

“There remain many unanswered questions surrounding the incident as reports confirm that an information blackout and security crackdown has been implemented in the region to quell any independent verification of the facts,” the Munich-based World Uighur Congress (WUC) said in a statement.

China attacks: Uighur groups urge probe; 12 more deaths reported | Business Line

 

[Unkotare]

The CCP has been doing such things (and much worse) in Xinjiang for a very long time.

 

[Vikrant]

Violence hits west China ahead of key anniversary


BEIJING (AP) — Violent incidents have spread over the past week in a tense minority region of western China, just days before the fourth anniversary of a bloody clash between minority Uighurs and the ethnic Han majority that left almost 200 people dead and resulted in a major security clampdown.

China's communist authorities have labeled some of the incidents — including one that left 35 people dead — as terrorist attacks, and President Xi Jinping has ordered that the situation be promptly dealt with to safeguard overall social stability, state media has reported. A state-run newspaper said Saturday that authorities had beefed up security in the region.

The latest violence reportedly took place Friday in southern Xinjiang's Hotan area. In one incident, more than 100 knife-wielding people mounted motorbikes in an attempt to storm the police station for Karakax county, the state-run Global Times reported.

In another, an armed mob staged an attack in the township of Hanairike, according to the news portal of the Xinjiang regional government. It did not say what sort of weapons the mob had.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported a "violent attack" Friday afternoon on a pedestrian street in downtown Hotan city. No casualties were reported in any of the incidents, which state media said were quickly brought under control. The government's news portal, Tianshan Net, said there were no civilian casualties in Hanairike.

An exiled Uighur activist, Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, disputed those accounts, saying there were several protests in the Hotan area against what Uighurs see as China's suppressive policies in Xinjiang. He said 48 people were arrested.

"It's a crisis of survival," said Dilxat Raxit, who called for international observers to be sent to the region to help curb what he said was excessive violence against Uighurs by the Chinese government.

It has not been possible to independently verify the different accounts of the violence because of tight controls over information in the region.

The incidents Friday in Xinjiang came after what the government described as attacks on police and other government buildings Wednesday in eastern Xinjiang. The violence in Turpan prefecture's Lukqun township killed 35 people and was one of the bloodiest incidents since the July 5, 2009, unrest in the region's capital city, Urumqi, killed nearly 200.

Xinjiang (shihn-jeeahng) is home to a large population of minority Muslim Uighurs (WEE'-gurs) in a region that borders Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and has been the scene of numerous violent acts in recent years.

Critics often attribute the violence in Xinjiang to what they say is Beijing's oppressive and discriminatory ethnicity policies. Many Uighurs complain that authorities impose tight restrictions on their religious and cultural life.

The Chinese government says that it has invested billions of dollars in modernizing the oil- and gas-rich region and that it treats all ethnic groups equally.

Calls to local government agencies were either unanswered or were responded to by people who said they were unauthorized to speak to reporters.

State-run media reported that the incident Wednesday started when knife-wielding assailants targeted police stations, a government building and a construction site — all symbols of Han authority in the region.

Photos released in state media show scorched police cars and government buildings and victims lying on the ground, presumably dead.

Dilxat Raxit also disputed that account, saying the violence started when police forcefully raided homes at night.

Xinhua said 11 assailants were shot dead, and that two police officers were among the 24 people they killed.

"This is a terrorist attack, there's no question about that," Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said Friday at a regular news briefing. "As to who masterminded it, local people are still investigating."

State news reports did not identify the ethnicity of the attackers, nor say what may have caused the conflict in the Turkic-speaking region. The reports said police captured four injured assailants.

The Global Times reported Saturday that police had stepped up security measures, deploying more forces to public areas, governmental institutes and police compounds. It said a suspect was captured Friday afternoon in Urumqi.

Violence hits west China ahead of key anniversary - GreenwichTime

 

[waltky]

Muslims causin' mayhem in China...

Deadly bombing in Xinjiang, China
Wednesday 21 May 2014 ~ Explosions as vehicles plough through market in city of Urumqi, where Uighur separatists have been blamed for other attacks

At least 31 people were killed when two off-road vehicles ploughed through a marketplace in China's Xinjiang region while the occupants threw explosives out of the windows, the country's Xinhua news agency has reported. The death toll from the attack in the city of Urumqi makes it the bloodiest in a series of violent incidents blamed on separatist Uighur Muslims.

Xinhua said one of the vehicles exploded and quoted an eyewitness as saying there were up to a dozen blasts in all. There were more than 90 people injured. Urumqi was the scene of a railway station bomb attack late in April that killed three people, including two attackers, and injured 79. The blasts occurred at an open-air morning market near Renmin Park in downtown Urumqi. Flames and heavy smoke were seen nearby while the area had been cordoned off after the blast.

Photos posted on social media, purportedly of the blast but unverified by Reuters, showed a column of smoke and chaos at the market, with bloodied people lying on the tree-lined road near small stands selling fruit, vegetables and eggs. "There were two vehicles that drove like crazy toward the morning market ... there were definitely people killed," a witness who declined to give his name told Reuters by telephone. "The market was total chaos, hawkers and shoppers started running everywhere ... it was definitely a terrorist act. I'm so angry."

Xinjiang has been plagued by violence for years but rights activists and exile groups say the government's own heavyhanded policies in the region have sown the seeds of unrest. China has blamed recent knife and bomb attacks in Xinjiang and elsewhere on ethnic Muslim Uighurs.

Deadly bombing in Xinjiang, China | World news | theguardian.com

 

[waltky]

China dealin' with the Muslims...

Unrest in Xinjiang brings deadly force
Tue, Sep 09, 2014 - BULLETS: Human Rights Watch said authorities are acting with a ‘deeply disturbing’ lack of accountability. Overseas Uighur activists say many innocents may have been killed

When attackers from China’s minority Uighurs killed 37 people in a July rampage in far western Xinjiang, police responded by gunning down at least 59 of them. When three Uighurs allegedly killed a top state-appointed Muslim cleric, police shot dead two of them. When security forces led a raid on 10 suspected Uighur terrorists, they fatally shot all but one. The incidents are part of a pattern raising concerns that Chinese police are excessively using deadly force in their bid to prevent more attacks by Uighur militants, who have killed dozens of civilians in train stations and other public places over the past few years. In some cities, patrolling SWAT units have already been authorized to shoot dead suspected terrorists without warning.

An Associated Press review of articles by the Xinhua news agency and other state media has found that at least 323 people have died in Xinjiang-related violence since April last year, when the unrest began to escalate. Nearly half of those deaths were inflicted by police — in most cases, by gunning down alleged perpetrators who are usually reported as having been armed with knives, axes and, occasionally, vaguely defined explosives. Beijing’s tight controls and monopoly on the narrative make it difficult to independently assess if the lethal action has been justified. And Chinese authorities prevent most reporting by foreign journalists inside Xinjiang, making it nearly impossible to confirm the state media numbers.

Uighur exile groups and the US-government funded broadcaster Radio Free Asia (RFA) report far more violent incidents than Chinese state media do, and in some cases, higher death tolls and police shootings of Uighur protesters, but those reports are similarly hard to verify. To understand just how tough it can be to determine whether China’s hand is being forced — or whether officials are recklessly lashing out at those who resist them — consider this recent series of confrontations in Xinjiang: On Aug. 1, police cornered a group of alleged terrorists in an abandoned house and shot nine of them dead, arresting one. In June, police gunned down 13 “mobsters” who allegedly attacked a local police station. In April, checkpoint police fatally shot a teenage Uighur motorcyclist after he allegedly attempted to grab their guns.

In many cases, the government’s accounts of violence are wildly divergent from overseas reports. Of the June incident, Uighur exiles said Uighur residents were simply protesting outside the police station when police fired at them and their truck, setting off a fire. In the teenager’s case, RFA reported that he had been shot after running a red light. Who is to say what really happened? Xinjiang authorities operate with a “deeply disturbing” lack of accountability, said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “If the use of force is justified, the Chinese government should be allowing independent, credible experts to review the evidence,” she said. “It should be making that evidence public.”

FEW PROTECTIONS

See also:

Killings by China anti-terror cops raise concerns

 

[ChrisL]

BEIJING: At least 27 people have died, 10 of them in police firing, following a communal clash in China's restive Xinjiang region bordering Pakistan and Central Asia on Wednesday morning. The deaths include those of nine policemen.

Official sources said police opened fire after a mob armed with knives attacked police stations and a local government building in Turpan prefecture of the western China province, which has a large population of Uyghurs, who are Turkic Muslims.

State media said violence by knife wielding mobs had already killed eight civilians and nine security personnel in Lukwun, a remote township in Turpan, 200kms from the regions's capital of Urumqi, when police opened fire killing 10 rioters. The rioters stabbed people and set police cars alight, state media said quoting local officials.

This is the second major case of violence since last April when 21 people including 10 policemen were killed. Xinjiang has been the scene of a violent agitation for splitting China to create an East Turkmenistan nation. The worst case of bloodshed took place in 2009 when 200 people were killed.

Local officials have in the past cited Taliban bases in Pakistan as the source of training and arms used by Uyghur separatists but the Chinese foreign ministry has defended Pakistan's "battle against terrorism".

...

Ethnic riots rock China?s Uighur area, 27 killed - The Times of India

Of course not. Not the Muslims. Couldn't be. They are a friendly, tolerant and PEACEFUL bunch. Nope, nope, it MUST be something else.

 

[Mad Scientist]

Riots and protests happen on a daily basis in China. Not much of that gets reported here though.

I wonder why?

 

[ChrisL]

Riots and protests happen on a daily basis in China. Not much of that gets reported here though.

I wonder why?

Because our people would get upset if they knew the truth about the things that go on in communist led countries and would be outraged at our trade agreements and borrowing money from such a regime. I imagine they aren't too much different than NK.

 

[Unkotare]

Riots and protests happen on a daily basis in China. Not much of that gets reported here though.

I wonder why?

Because our people would get upset if they knew the truth about the things that go on in communist led countries and would be outraged at our trade agreements and borrowing money from such a regime. I imagine they aren't too much different than NK.

China is very much different from North Korea.

 

[ChrisL]

Riots and protests happen on a daily basis in China. Not much of that gets reported here though.

I wonder why?

Because our people would get upset if they knew the truth about the things that go on in communist led countries and would be outraged at our trade agreements and borrowing money from such a regime. I imagine they aren't too much different than NK.

China is very much different from North Korea.

Oh really? In what way?

China lies and hides things. We all know that. Of course, they try to put their best foot forward to the worldwide community, but I have talked with a person who attended the Olympics there . . . needless to say, life isn't very good for many citizens of China.

 

[Unkotare]

Riots and protests happen on a daily basis in China. Not much of that gets reported here though.

I wonder why?

Because our people would get upset if they knew the truth about the things that go on in communist led countries and would be outraged at our trade agreements and borrowing money from such a regime. I imagine they aren't too much different than NK.

China is very much different from North Korea.

Oh really? In what way?

In just about every way. China is no paradise, and certainly not a system we should emulate, but they are not North Korea.

 

[Unkotare]

but I have talked with a person who attended the Olympics there . . . .

Wow, you are practically an expert!

 

[ChrisL]

but I have talked with a person who attended the Olympics there . . . .

Wow, you are practically an expert!

And what are your sources specifically, that you know China is NOT like North Korea?

 

[Unkotare]

but I have talked with a person who attended the Olympics there . . . .

Wow, you are practically an expert!

And what are your sources specifically, that you know China is NOT like North Korea?

Let's see...the two years I lived there, the thousands of Chinese people I know and have known, the dozens of Chinese people I interact with on a regular basis, and a familiarity beyond what seems to be your simplistic generalizations.

 

[ChrisL]

Riots and protests happen on a daily basis in China. Not much of that gets reported here though.

I wonder why?

Because our people would get upset if they knew the truth about the things that go on in communist led countries and would be outraged at our trade agreements and borrowing money from such a regime. I imagine they aren't too much different than NK.

China is very much different from North Korea.

Oh really? In what way?

In just about every way. China is no paradise, and certainly not a system we should emulate, but they are not North Korea.

BOTH are communist regimes, both have an extremely large population of extremely poor people, both dictate to the personal lives of the people who reside in the country, both abuse citizens and give out harsh inhumane punishments through kangaroo court systems. Just because China has not been isolated by the worldwide community does not mean they operate on a level any different from NK, IMO. The only difference is China is a powerhouse, taken more seriously because of their huge amount of recent economic growth. I don't see where the PEOPLE of China have benefited though.

 

[ChrisL]

but I have talked with a person who attended the Olympics there . . . .

Wow, you are practically an expert!

And what are your sources specifically, that you know China is NOT like North Korea?

Let's see...the two years I lived there, the thousands of Chinese people I know and have known, the dozens of Chinese people I interact with on a regular basis, and a familiarity beyond what seems to be your simplistic generalizations.

Gee, I could say that too. Your anecdote isn't any more valid than mine.

 

[Unkotare]

but I have talked with a person who attended the Olympics there . . . .

Wow, you are practically an expert!

And what are your sources specifically, that you know China is NOT like North Korea?

Let's see...the two years I lived there, the thousands of Chinese people I know and have known, the dozens of Chinese people I interact with on a regular basis, and a familiarity beyond what seems to be your simplistic generalizations.

Gee, I could say that too.

But you would be lying, and I'm not. Why is this about your ego all of a sudden?

 

[Unkotare]

BOTH are communist regimes, both have an extremely large population of extremely poor people,.

North Korea does not have "an extremely large population," and millions of people in China are very wealthy by American standards.