DTN News - CHINA NEWS: Xinjiang Riots - China Raises Death Toll To 18 in Violence

DTN News - CHINA NEWS: Xinjiang Riots - China Raises Death Toll To 18 in Violence

**Chinese Police 'Gunned Down' 14 Rioters In Xinjiang Attack

Source: DTN News - - This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources

(NSI News Source Info) TORONTO, Canada - July 20, 2011: Reported by Chinese National News of even date, the Chinese police shot down 14 rioters who attacked a police station in Hotan city of Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur region, an official has said.

The Communist Party official in Hotan said the attack left four people dead, including an armed police officer, a security guard, a woman and a teenage girl. At least three others were injured.

Rioters killed a security guard while they were trying to break into the Na'erbage police station, Xinhua quoted Ablet Metniyaz, chief of the police station, as saying.

In addition to the security guard, an armed policeman and two civilians died in the incident, he added.

The rioters had taken six civilians and some police staff hostage, and set ablaze and smashed things in the police station, Metniyaz said.

Shouting frantic religious slogans like 'Allah the only God', the rioters ran to the top floor and police opened fire to stop them, said a police official.

China on Wednesday raised the death toll to 18 from a clash at a police station in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, saying that 14 "rioters" died along with two policemen and two hostages in the worst violence there in a year.

Government officials previously said at least four people were killed in what they described as a terrorist attack. But the Germany-based exile group World Uyghur Congress said it was an attack on unarmed protesters.

The clash marked the worst violence in about a year in the far western region, home to many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people native to the area, many of whom resent the growing presence of majority Han Chinese in Xinjiang.

Xinjiang is strategically vital to China and Beijing has shown no sign of loosening its grip on the territory, which accounts for one-sixth of China's land mass and holds rich deposits of oil and gas and borders Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Central Asia.

The exile group had said 20 Uighurs were killed -- 14 beaten to death and 6 shot dead -- and 70 arrested, when police opened fire on protesters, leading to fighting between the two sides.

The Xinjiang government's website (http://www.xinjiang.gov.cn) said that police fatally shot the 14 rioters after giving "legal education and warnings," adding that 18 rioters had bought and made weapons and sneaked into the desert city of Hotan days before the clash on Monday.

The report said the rioters, armed with axes, knives, daggers, Molotov cocktails and explosive devices, "crazily beat, smashed and set on fire" the police station, and hung "flags of extreme religion" on the top of the station.

Two policemen and two hostages were also killed in the clash and four of the rioters were arrested, it added. "It was an organized, premeditated and severe violent terrorist attack to local politics-and-law departments," the report said.

The website also showed three pictures it said were taken on the scene of the incident, showing police with guns storming into a police station, which in one photo was on fire.

"NOT EVEN A WOODEN STICK"

Rebiya Kadeer, who leads the World Uyghur Congress from exile in the United States, denied any of the Uighurs involved in the protest were armed.

"There (was) not even a wood stick in their hands," she told Reuters in Washington. "We keep demanding that the Chinese government stop this kind of terrorist activity against a peaceful people and respect the culture and national identity of Uighurs."

Once a successful businesswoman feted by Beijing, Kadeer is now reviled by China as a violent separatist. She denies the accusations, saying she wants only peaceful change.

The differing accounts and the authenticity of the pictures published by the government could not be independently verified.

Rights groups say Xinjiang remains under tight security, more than two years after its capital Urumqi was rocked by violence between Han Chinese and Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people.

Since then, China has executed nine people it blamed for instigating the riots, detained and prosecuted hundreds and ramped up spending on security, according to state media and overseas rights groups.

The Global Times, a popular tabloid published by Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, said incidents such as that in Hotan "will not lead to collapse as some Westerners have predicted."

"They will not have a colossal impact even if they take place at Tiananmen Square in downtown Beijing," it said in an editorial in its English-language edition.

"Those who underestimate China's social capacity actually underestimate the entire nation," it added. "As for terrorism, the authorities should take a tough stand and ignore unreasonable rebukes from the West."

Beijing, wary of instability and the threat to the Communist Party's grip on power, often blames what it calls violent separatist groups in Xinjiang for attacks on police or other government targets. It says they work with al Qaeda or Central Asian militants to bring about an independent state called East Turkestan.

(Additional reporting by Sally Huang, Sui-Lee Wee and Maxim Duncan)

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*Link for This article compiled by Roger Smith from reliable sources

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DTN News: China TODAY February 12, 2010 ~ Trekking 1,000km In China For E-Mail

DTN News: China TODAY February 12, 2010 ~ Trekking 1,000km In China For E-Mail *Source: DTN News / By Damian Grammaticas BBC News, Xinjiang (NSI News Source Info) URUMQI, Xinjiang Region, China - February 12, 2010: It is minus 20C, and China's frigid far west Xinjiang province feels frozen, cut off. On the streets of the capital, Urumqi, people huddle around braziers to keep warm. The call to prayer rings out from the minaret of a mosque. Every few minutes in the middle of Urumqi another security patrol passes. Chinese policemen in smart blue uniforms march in line, brandishing their guns. Business people are having to travel 1,000km just to keep in touch with clients. For us who make a living on the internet, it's a fatal blow ~ Zhu Meng Xinjiang businessman Police vans drive by slowly with their blue and red warning lights flashing, officers in helmets and camouflage gear peering watchfully out. Sometimes it is trucks painted in military colours. At other times, men march past dressed in long green greatcoats and fur hats, clutching wooden clubs. China says it is fighting terrorism and separatism here and must be vigilant. The security is a constant presence. And for months now Xinjiang's people have had their communication with the outside world restricted. Internet blamed China clamped down after Xinjiang suffered serious unrest last summer. The spark was in southern China, where two ethnic Uighurs had been beaten to death by Han Chinese workers after trouble blew up at a factory. A few days later, after the news reached Xinjiang, came reprisals. Uighur mobs rioted, attacking Han Chinese, and Han Chinese retaliated. China says 200, mostly Han Chinese, were killed in Urumqi and the internet and mobile phones were used to foment the chaos. (Image/Photo: Urumqi was flooded with security forces after the violence) So to keep control in Xinjiang, China imposed severe restrictions on the flow of information in and out of this province. For much of the past seven months the internet was cut off. Mobile phone text messages were suspended. Urumqi's biggest internet cafe has 500 computer terminals. It had just been refurbished before the riots with new computers installed. Now it is almost empty. In one corner three people lie snoozing with their heads on the computer keyboards. The machines are turned off. Wang Xi, the cafe's manager, says his takings have fallen by two-thirds. His business is just about surviving, he says, but smaller internet cafes are closing. Even the online computer games that young Chinese love to play were blocked, so a few people sit playing PC games by themselves at a couple of terminals. "I hope they can switch the internet back on soon," says one. "I've been waiting for a long time to get online." Xinhua access More than 20 million people in Xinjiang have been affected by the curbs and most of them had nothing to do with the riots. In Urumqi's wholesale market, traders sit in the snow surrounded by sacks full of dates, nuts and dried fruits. People huddle around charcoal stoves trying to keep warm. Sifting through a sack of almonds are Ma Hui and her husband Zhu Meng. The couple make their living trading the fruit and nuts Xinjiang is famed for, selling them to people in other parts of China. But all their sales are online. So it has been almost impossible for them to keep their business going. At the computer in his office, Zhu Meng shows me how the authorities have recently been opening up access to a few internet sites. First he could see only the state-run news agency Xinhua and a couple of other websites. Last weekend curbs on about 25 more sites were lifted, but that is all. Then he showed me there was no e-mail, no instant messaging, no way of responding to his customers online. "It's okay for the government to control things," Zhu Meng says, "but when they control everything, even the search engines, it has a huge effect. "For us who make a living on the internet, it's a fatal blow." E-mail trek The only way to get around the internet block has been to travel 1,000 km (620 miles) across Xinjiang's deserts to reach a working internet connection outside the region. The couple are losing customers Starting seven months ago, Zhu Meng began making the long journey just to send e-mails to keep his business alive. The road follows the old trading artery, the Silk Road, past snow-capped peaks, across Xinjiang's empty expanses and through a barren moonscape of mountains and snow. Over the past seven months, others too have been following the same route by road, train and plane just to get online. By car, it takes 24 hours from Urumqi to reach the first working internet connection outside Xinjiang. It is just across the border in neighbouring Gansu province, in the dusty frontier town of Liuyuan. There is one main street, a shabby bus station and an internet cafe. When Ma Hui and Zhu Meng made the journey again and logged on last week, the cost of being cut off was clear. They found order after order cancelled. Angry customers who had placed orders but had not received goods were wanting their money back. "We've lost a lot," said Ma Hui, shocked, "but it's not just the money that's important. We've lost the trust of our customers." Out in the deserts here is the very end of China's Great Wall. The muddy brown clay bricks crumble into the dust. Keeping order has long been a Chinese priority. But today, with its curbs on the internet, China's critics say the country again risks walling itself off from the flow of commerce, ideas and progress. China's government says that is not the case. When asked why internet access in Xinjiang is still so limited, China's foreign ministry spokesman insisted: "The internet is open in China, and governed by our laws".

XINJIANG UNREST KEY STORIES ~ More death sentences in Xinjiang ~ Returned China Uighurs 'vanished' ~ Chinese syringe attackers jailed ~ China allows texting in Xinjiang ~ Many 'missing' after China riots

FEATURES AND ANALYSIS

~ China's tinderbox

~ Ethnic riots shatter government myth of social harmony ~ Xinjiang violence: Views from China ~ China seeks control through openness ~ Ethnic tensions taboo in China ~ Uighur resentment at Beijing's rule ~ Accounts of violence in Xinjiang ~ Regions and territories: Xinjiang ~ Q&A: China and the Uighurs

DTN News: China TODAY September 5, 2009 ~ Five dead Amid Urumqi Protests / China Blames Muslim Separatists For Needle Attacks

DTN News: China TODAY September 5, 2009 ~ Five dead Amid Urumqi Protests / China Blames Muslim Separatists For Needle Attacks

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) URUMQI, China - September 5, 2009: Five people died in unrest this week in the far-west Chinese city of Urumqi, its deputy mayor said, after a third day of protests which were broken up by police using tear gas. Chinese security forces chase Han Chinese demonstrators at a road block during a protest at the center of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region September 4, 2009. Tension flared in China's western city of Urumqi on Friday, when hundreds of Han Chinese tried to push past security barriers into an ethnic Uighur neighbourhood and shouted demands for better security. The confrontation came a day after many thousands of Han Chinese massed in the streets in Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang, protesting that they were the targets of mysterious attacks with syringes and that authorities had been too slow to punish Uighurs behind deadly riots on July 5. Han Chinese protesters massed in the capital of the Xinjiang region, angry at authorities they blamed for failing to control a spate of syringe attacks and being slow to bring to trial ethnic Uighurs charged with deadly rioting on July 5. The demonstrations are a rare direct challenge to the government by middle class urbanites, and could inflame ethnic resentments as Beijing prepares to showcase the nation's achievements on October 1, the 60th anniversary of Communist rule. Troops blocked protesters' access to neighbourhoods that are home to Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim people native to the energy-rich region. Faced with deteriorating support among the majority Han Chinese, Beijing dispatched public security minister Meng Jianzhu to Urumqi, where he urged officials to "restore social order as soon as possible". The unrest came two months after deadly ethnic riots swept the city, killing at least 197 people, most of them Han Chinese. The July 5 riots began after police stopped Uighurs demonstrating against the deaths of Uighur factory workers attacked by Han co-workers in southern China in late June. Among the five who died on Thursday, two were "innocent civilians", while police were still investigating the other deaths, Deputy Mayor Zhang Hong told a news conference. He did not specify the ethnic backgrounds of the dead nor how they died. On Thursday, thousands of Han Chinese demanded the resignation of the region's powerful Communist Party secretary, Wang Lequan, who has held the post for 14 years. Friday's evening television news showed Mr Wang grimly taking notes at a meeting held by public security minister Mr Meng. Mr Meng repeated government accusations that separatists, trying to stir up instability, were behind the syringe attacks. Chinese security forces block a road during a protest by Han Chinese at the centre of Urumqi in China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region September 4, 2009. Tension flared in China's western city of Urumqi on Friday, when hundreds of Han Chinese tried to push past security barriers into an ethnic Uighur neighbourhood and shouted demands for better security. The confrontation came a day after many thousands of Han Chinese massed in the streets in Urumqi, regional capital of Xinjiang, protesting that they were the targets of mysterious attacks with syringes and that authorities had been too slow to punish Uighurs behind deadly riots on July 5. "Maintaining stability is the central task of overriding importance in Xinjiang at the present time," he said. Twenty-one Uighurs had been detained for the syringe attacks, Mr Zhang said, adding that four have already been indicted. Most of the victims were Han Chinese, he added, but other ethnicities were also attacked.

DTN News: China TODAY September 4, 2009 ~ Fresh Protests In Restive Xinjiang Capital

DTN News: China TODAY September 4, 2009 ~ Fresh Protests In Restive Xinjiang Capital *Source: DTN News / AFP (NSI News Source Info) URUMQI, China - September 4, 2009: The Chinese city of Urumqi was under lockdown after tens of thousands of protesters took to the streets Thursday over mysterious syringe attacks in the capital of restive Xinjiang region. Chinese paramilitary police watch as Chinese gather on the streets of Urumqi in western China's Xinjiang province, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009. Chinese residents protested deteriorating public safety Thursday after reported syringe attacks in the city where ethnic rioting in July killed nearly 200 people. The streets were deserted apart from several hundred police officers, an AFP reporter said. Many were armed with riot shields and truncheons and some with guns in a forceful response aimed at staving off a second wave of bloodshed following that seen here in July, when nearly 200 people were killed. The police presence was heaviest in the southern half of the city, home to many of the city's Muslim ethnic Uighurs. About two hundred police with several dozen military trucks were camped out in the People's Square. All major roads and highways into Urumqi were closed to traffic and police had ordered residents to stay indoors. The state Xinhua news agency said "tens of thousands of people" had earlier gathered at several locations to protest a series of syringe attacks against members of various ethnic groups. Shops and markets were shuttered. Some Uighurs, who clashed with Han Chinese in July in the worst ethnic unrest to hit the country in decades, were among the protesters who crippled traffic in the city, Xinhua said. "There are about 10-20,000 people and many police in the street at every intersection," a Han woman who runs a local medical clinic told AFP, asking not to be named. "There are more than 100 police stationed every 400-500 metres," she said. "I heard there was a protest yesterday afternoon and I saw it myself today. They shouted, 'Protect our homeland.' Most of them are Han." "The reason for the protest was because people were stabbed by the needles," the woman at the clinic added. The Xinjiang-based Bingtuan Television said authorities had been receiving reports since August 20 of people being attacked with needles, putting the number of assaults at 476. Xinhua said 21 people, whose ethnicity was not disclosed, had been detained after attacking members of nine ethnic groups, including Han Chinese and Uighurs. Four have been arrested for criminal prosecution. No one had been infected or poisoned in the assaults, the agency said, but it remained unclear why attackers used syringes, or what these contained. Regional Communist Party chief Wang Lequan and Urumqi party boss Li Zhi both "called on the crowds, on two separate occasions, to stay calm and show restraint," Xinhua reported. Some witnesses said protesters had shouted slogans against Wang, demanding that he do something to put an end to the needle stabbings. Xinhua said the protests began late Thursday morning when more than 1,000 people gathered in a residential district of Urumqi, and a crowd congregated in another area when a man was caught after allegedly stabbing a child. The demonstration spread to major streets in the city, with some needle-stabbing attacks occurring during the protests. One attacker was caught and police stopped the crowd from beating the person, Xinhua reported. Chinese paramilitary police officers stand guard near the People's Square after they closed down the roads heading to the square in Urumqi, Xinjiang province, China, Friday, Sept. 4, 2009. More than 10,000 people, mostly from the Han Chinese majority, took to the streets Thursday, demanding increased security and punishment for those behind the July riots. Demonstrators said police beat some protesters, but there were no major clashes. "The Han have staged a march so the police imposed controls and ordered us to stay indoors," Halisha, a Uighur eye doctor, said by telephone. A receptionist at an Urumqi hotel said Internet access had been limited throughout the city. Local and regional government officials were not immediately available for comment. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said she had no knowledge of the incident but told reporters at a regular news briefing that China was "competent to safeguard social stability and national unity". Uighurs say the July 5 riots occurred after Urumqi police tried to forcibly break up a peaceful protest over a brawl involving factory workers in distant southern China that state media said left two Uighurs dead. China however has accused exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, who lives in the United States, of orchestrating the unrest. During a visit to mainly Muslim Xinjiang late last month, President Hu Jintao described those behind the unrest as "separatists" who were "doomed to fail." Kadeer has denied any involvement in the violence. Dilxat Raxit, the Munich-based spokesman of Kadeer's World Uighur Congress, said witnesses had told him that about 10 Uighurs had been beaten and taken to hospital in the latest unrest. A female office worker in downtown Urumqi said the situation in the city had been "very chaotic and especially serious" in the past two days.

DTN News: China's President Hu Jintao Vows Xinjiang 'Separatists' Will Fail: Report

DTN News: China's President Hu Jintao Vows Xinjiang 'Separatists' Will Fail: Report *Source: DTN News / Int'l Media (NSI News Source Info) BEIJING, China - August 26, 2009: President Hu Jintao vowed on Tuesday that "separatist forces" which China blames for recent deadly unrest in its heavily Muslim Xinjiang region would fail, state media said. A Chinese police officer patrols in Urumqi, in northwest China's Xinjiang province on Wednesday, Aug. 26, 2009. China's President Hu Jintao has pledged new reforms to help accelerate economic growth in Xinjiang after the remote region was rocked by deadly ethnic rioting, saying that stability there matters to the whole country. "The separatist forces do not have popular support and are doomed to fail," Hu was quoted saying by state-run China Central Television (CCTV). CCTV said Hu's comments were made to Xinjiang officials in the regional capital Urumqi, the scene of bloody riots in July that left at least 197 people dead. They came amid an inspection tour of the region by Hu that also took him to four other smaller cities, the report said. The July 5 riots saw members of the mainly Muslim Uyghur minority clash with Han Chinese in the worst ethnic unrest to hit the country in decades. Uyghurs say the riots occurred after Urumqi police tried to forcibly break up a peaceful protest over a factory worker brawl in distant southern China between Uighurs and Han and which state media said left two Uyghurs dead. However, China blames the Urumqi unrest on what it calls separatist forces lead by exiled Uyghur activist Rebiya Kadeer, who is based in the United States. She has denied any involvement. CCTV broadcast images showing Hu in Xinjiang inspecting businesses, thanking security personnel for helping put down the unrest, and consoling victims. "(The separatist forces) destructive activities cannot shake the overall stability of Xinjiang's reform and development," Hu was quoted as saying. Xinjiang's government earlier Tuesday denied a report in the state media that more than 200 people would be put on trial this week over the July violence, which prompted a massive security crackdown across the region. On Monday, the state-run China Daily reported on its front page that the People's Intermediate Court in the regional capital Urumqi was preparing for the trials amid tight security. "At present, there is no scheduled date for the trial," Li Hua, an official at the Xinjiang government media office, told AFP on Tuesday. "I don't know how China Daily got that information, but it's not true. We will announce it to the media when there is a trial."

DTN News: China TODAY August 25, 2009 ~ 200 To Face Trial In China For Xinjiang Unrest

DTN News: China TODAY August 25, 2009 ~ 200 To Face Trial In China For Xinjiang Unrest

*Source: DTN News / Int'l Media

(NSI News Source Info) BEIJING, China - August 25, 2009: China will this week put more than 200 people on trial over last month's deadly ethnic unrest in Xinjiang, with security tight due to fears of fresh violence, state media said Monday. An ethnic minority Chinese resident walks past a checkpoint with heavily armed paramilitary police along a street of Urumqi, northwestern China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Monday, Aug. 24, 2009. More than 200 people are expected to go on trial this week for their involvement in sectarian riots last month that killed nearly 200 people in China's western region of Xinjiang. The trials will take place in the Intermediate People's Court in Urumqi, the capital of the mainly Muslim northwest region where violence in early July left at least 197 people dead, the China Daily reported, citing unnamed officials. The more than 200 defendants will face charges ranging from disrupting traffic to murder, the paper said, meaning that some of them could be given the death penalty. Authorities had previously announced only 83 formal arrests. Armed police have started around-the-clock patrols in the area near the courthouse, in a massive security build-up ahead of the hearings, the paper said. Local residents have voiced concerns that the trials will rekindle the same raw emotions among the city's different ethnic groups that fanned the deadly street clashes less than two months ago. "Many bereaved Han families will come to wait for the verdicts, and the authorities fear they may clash with any Uighur in their presence," Guo Mei, a saleswoman who works near the court, told the China Daily. The violence that broke out in Urumqi on July 5 pitted Han Chinese against Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking and predominantly Muslim people, in the worst ethnic unrest to hit the country in decades. The paper reported intense public interest in the trials, which will all be public, except from those dealing with "splitting the state". "I'd be very angry if those rioters receive light sentences or escape justice," said an unnamed worker. "They should be given harsh penalties for causing the loss of so many innocent lives." One Han shopkeeper told the China Daily that Han Chinese who "overreacted" when seeking out Uighurs in retaliatory mob violence following the initial riots "should be granted leniency by the judge". Both court officials and prosecutors declined to comment when contacted by AFP. A city government official surnamed Ma said he had "no information so far" about the trials. With doubts remaining over who was to blame for the violence, the future of ethnic relations in volatile Xinjiang hinges to a large extent on how the Chinese government handles the aftermath, observers said. "There is profound distrust on both sides in terms of Han Chinese and the Uighurs," Phelim Kine, an Asia researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch, told AFP. "The Chinese government can make a huge advance in terms of bridging that divide, in terms of bringing the two sides together, by allowing an independent investigation that all sides can point to as impartial and objective." The paper did not say how many of the defendants were Uighurs. However, it reported that more than 170 Uighur and 20 Han lawyers had been assigned, suggesting that the bulk were members of the minority group. Prosecutors have prepared more than 3,300 items of physical evidence for the trial, including bricks and clubs stained with blood, 91 video clips and more than 2,150 photos, the paper said. Kine said HRW was concerned that the Urumqi trials "will follow the same abuses of international process that we saw in the trials of suspects detained following the unrest in Tibet in March 2008."