Uighurs Riot
06 July 2009 1:07 am by spincitysd
http://tiny.cc/WY3iI
Three people were killed during rioting in the western Chinese region of Xinjiang, as thousands of Muslim Uighurs took to the streets during the biggest display of ethnic unrest in recent memory.
The protesters smashed up buses, threw stones through shop windows and assaulted Han Chinese passers-by, according to a witness, who said the spark was the recent killing of Uighur migrant workers in Guangdong, southern China.
Xinhua, the state news agency, said those killed were “three ordinary people of the Han ethnic group.” It did not say how they died.
Vehicles were set on fire and traffic guard rails overturned. Bloodied victims were rushed to hospital in the regional capital, Urumqi, as armed riot police moved in to restore order with tear gas, armoured vehicles and road blocks, according to a foreign student in Xinjiang.
Story from : guardian.co.uk
The Uighurs (pronounce wee-gur) are majority in Xinjiang and are separate people from the Han Chinese. They are Sunni Muslims.
Xinjiang provence borders one of the more obscure Stans–Kazakhstan. There is oil and gas in the magnificent desolation of the area and much friction between the Han and the Uighurs.
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Here is a video of the “peaceful” protest put down by the Chinese government:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHvI1pDNadY
Message: this is not Iran.
The Chinese are much better at this than the Iranians. The immediately shut down communications so the only thing coming out of Xinjiang was the party line. From the New York Times:
In contrast to last year’s unrest in Tibet, where accounts of police and military violence against demonstrators were common, China’s central government moved swiftly to take command of the public depiction of the Urumqi protests and to cripple protesters’ ability to communicate.
Local Internet service was largely disabled, and online bulletin boards and search engines across China were purged of references to the violence. The social networking service Twitter, which effectively rallied demonstrators in Iran last month, was also disabled. China Mobile, the nation’s largest cellphone provider, curtailed service in Urumqi, and cellphone calls from some Beijing numbers to the area were blocked.
And it’s working. One of my former Chinese students just wrote this on Facebook: fuck the fucking separatists!!! Go to hell!
They sure are, psychodrew.
Classic Facebook entry!