HUNDREDS OF Uighurs fled the capital of China’s northwestern region of Xinjiang yesterday, many fearing further violence after days of vicious inter-ethnic conflict.
Life appeared to be returning to normal in Urumqi, albeit tentatively, with businesses in the centre reopening for the first time since unrest began on Sunday night.
But the south bus station on Xinhua South Road – in a predominantly Uighur area – was packed with students and families scrabbling for tickets to other parts of the region. Police had to step in to tackle the crush in the ticket hall.
Urumqi’s population is predominantly Han Chinese, while in many towns in the south Uighurs dominate.
“We are going because we are all scared. We don’t have any alternative,” said a young mother waiting with her seven-year-old son as her husband fought his way through the crowd. They were not sure what work they could find in their home town.
A student from Kashgar said: “I’m afraid. [There’s] so much violence – Chinese people and Uighur people just fighting. I want to go back to my home. My parents are afraid for me.”
Han Chinese also remain frightened.
At least 156 people died and more than 1,000 were injured in the violence, the authorities say. Witnesses reported brutal attacks by Uighurs on Han, but the authorities have yet to identify victims.
On Tuesday, a vengeful Han mob armed with meat cleavers, shovels and other weapons headed for a Uighur area, trashing stores and throwing rocks at a mosque. Resulting injuries or deaths remain unknown, but paramilitary and riot police dispersed them with tear gas.
Several students at the bus station were leaving because the university ended the academic year early following the unrest, but said they expected to return in autumn.
But many travellers said they did not know if or when they would come back.
“It’s not safe now. When it’s stable I hope I can come back,” said a man who came to Urumqi to work but who was now returning to his southern hometown. The authorities posted up signs at the station and elsewhere urging rioters to surrender and warning that those hiding or protecting criminals also faced punishment.
About 1,400 people have already been arrested and officials have pledged to use the death penalty.
China’s top Communist leaders said achieving stability in the restive northwestern region was “the most important and pressing task”, in their first public comments on the riots.
On Wednesday, president Hu Jintao cut short his trip to Italy for the G8 summit and convened a meeting.
“We must by law severely attack those hardcore elements who planned and organised this incident and seriously violent criminals,” the Politburo standing committee said, but promised leniency to those misled by agitators.
Security forces mounted a second show of force in central Urumqi yesterday, massing in the People’s Square before marching around city streets chanting. But, in many areas, they had lowered their profile. Swat teams and paramilitary groups chatted and rested in the shade.
In Beijing, an academic who championed rights for fellow Uighurs is missing, thought to be in police detention.
Xinjiang’s governor, Nur Bekri, has claimed a website founded by Ilham Tohti was among those “used to orchestrate the incitement [by exiled Uighurs] and spread propaganda”. – (Guardian service)
* Reuters adds: China’s western neighbours, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, said yesterday they were evacuating their citizens from Xinjiang.
Mainly Muslim Central Asia is home to the biggest Uighur community outside China, but despite sharing a similar linguistic and cultural heritage, they have traditionally uneasy relations with the local population.
Central Asian governments, while officially welcoming their presence, are wary of what they see as Uighur aspirations to set up their own independent state between China and Kazakhstan.