【The Age】又见老相识Garnaut：好题目'Release our husbands, free our sons'

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'Release our husbands, free our sons'
http://www.theage.com.au/world/release-our-husbands-free-our-sons-20090707-dbxs.html?page=-1
Ethnic Uighur women, many holding babies, sit between Chinese riot police and soldiers to protest the arrest of family members in Urumqi. Photo: Reuters

John Garnaut, UrumqiJuly 8, 2009


China's far-western Xinjiang province was again at flashpoint last night after a large group of distraught Uighur women carrying their babies spontaneously confronted riot police in the heart of the provincial capital, Urumqi.

In echoes of the female-led resistance in Iran only a few weeks ago, about 100 women in colourful traditional Uighur dress and headscarves openly defied armed Chinese police to punch their fists in the air and demand the release of their sons and husbands, who they say have been beaten by police and taken to unknown destinations.

"Release our husbands, free our sons," the women chanted.

The extraordinary protest was fuelled by unconfirmed rumours that police had opened fire in a nearby area on Sunday night, killing many, and mass arrests that were continuing late yesterday.

The majority of protesters appeared beyond caring about their own physical safety.

The Chinese Government said 156 people were killed mainly in Urumqi on Sunday night, by far the biggest officially acknowledged death toll from any civil unrest in China since the massacre around Tiananmen Square 20 years ago.

Authorities said they had arrested 1434 suspects, accusing them of murder, assault, looting and burning during attacks by Muslim Uighurs against the Han, China's dominant ethnic group, who are seen in Xinjiang as oppressors.

Chinese official television and amateur videos show bloodied civilians of Han Chinese appearance.

Police yesterday fired tear gas to disperse mobs of Han Chinese who marched through Urumqi, many wielding bricks, chains and poles, and bent on reprisals against Uighurs.

One Uighur witness told The Age he saw police shooting protesters on Sunday night. He said hundreds had been killed, but The Age has been unable to verify the claim.

Yesterday, further mass bloodshed was narrowly averted when a small group of Uighur men held back a crowd that was advancing on riot police, who were brandishing batons and walking to confront them.

The line of riot police was engaged in a violent skirmish before being ordered to retreat. Later, senior police shouted amid the mayhem to restrain their officers, many of whom were armed and visibly angry.

A teenage Uighur boy picked up a brick, broke it in half on the curb and moved to throw it at police before being persuaded to drop it.

The protests began  about 11am  local time and within 30 minutes police - many  brandishing firearms - had separated the protesting males and chased them down a laneway.

The women and children remained, sitting  on the bitumen of Dawan South Road, sandwiched between approaching lines of armed police.

One young man who had previously incited the crowd was taken away in handcuffs but The Age  witnessed no further arrests.

The women were leaving the scene about 11.45am when  foreign journalists were ushered to leave.

The incident appeared to have been inadvertently triggered and then constrained by the presence of foreign journalists, who were  bussed there by the Chinese Government.

The tour had been intended to allow the media to see  businesses  that were destroyed by rioters,  and demonstrate that the situation was now under control.

A worker at a  car yard, who gave his name as Mr Xi, showed bruises on his arm and abdomen from rioters who swept through the area on Dawan South Road on Sunday night.

"I was protecting the yard with about 10 others when a couple of Uighurs entered,'' he said. "I thought I could stop them but they chased me into the basement where I hid under cars. But they dragged me out and beat me before I escaped back under the car again. I couldn't see clearly - I was covering my head - but I was beaten with sticks, rocks and other objects."

Ms Tan, whose husband runs the car yard, said: "In the past, we have lived in peace. I don't know what the reason is but you can obviously see what happened," gesturing to the lines of burnt-out vehicles.

Her husband, the car yard owner, said there were about 600 or 700 people in the crowd on Sunday night.

The short guided tour of Dawan South Road confirmed beyond doubt that large numbers of Xinjiang's Uighurs, who comprise nearly half of the autonomous region's population, are fed up with decades of what they say is political, economic and physical repression under the tight leash of the Chinese Communist Party.

The cycles of protests, police violence, riots and further police repression have not ended.

Yesterday about 3pm local time, more than a thousand angry Han Chinese vigilantes marched down the road outside the Haide Hotel and past the People's Square, one of Urumqi's most heavily guarded precincts.

They were all armed with heavy, metre-long wooden and metal poles and some carried large carving knives.

"I've volunteered to protect the streets," said one man, carrying a wooden pole.

A woman shouted at riot police for being useless.

And an old man chanted: "Protect the fruits of development."

After marching for four blocks,  the vigilante crowd was dispersed with tear gas, according to witnesses.

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