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本帖最后由 vivicat 于 2009-7-11 00:59 编辑
Chinese try to heal psychological wounds of unrest
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090709/ap_on_re_as/as_china_protest
By WILLIAM FOREMAN, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 37 mins ago
Thu Jul 9, 6:01 AM ET
Armed police officers rest in shade in Urumqi, western China's Xinjiang province, Thursday, July 9, 2009. Security forces kept a firm grip on the tense Xinjiang capital Thursday after days of ethnic violence that killed 156 people, and alarmed Chinese leaders vowed to deal firmly with those behind the attacks.(AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)
URUMQI, China – Construction worker Zhang Binkun said Thursday he was enraged because a mob of Muslim minorities beat to death his mother in the worst rioting to hit western China in decades.
Across town, a Muslim hotel clerk who asked to only be called Ablimit was recovering from a knife wound to his head and severe bruising inflicted by rampaging Han Chinese, the country's largest ethnic group.
People like these are the focus of a new government campaign — with banners, loudspeakers and group therapy sessions — to move beyond anger and end the ethnic violence that has threatened to spiral out of control in the oil-rich region in western China. More than 150 people have died in the fighting this week in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi.
Ending the feuding was now "the most urgent task," the nation's top Communist Party leaders said Thursday after a special meeting in Beijing, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. It was the first public comment about the fighting by the nine-member Politburo Standing Committee.
The violence began Sunday when the Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority, clashed with police while protesting the deaths of Uighur factory workers in a brawl in another part of the country. The crowd then scattered throughout Urumqi, attacking Han Chinese, burning cars and smashing windows. Riot police tried to restore order, and officials said 156 people were killed and more than 1,100 were injured.
Thousands of security forces have been patrolling the streets, but that wasn't enough to keep vengeful Han Chinese mobs from hunting down Uighurs on Tuesday. By Thursday, the capital seemed to be returning to normal amid an extraordinary show of force by paramilitary police and troops.
With the streets more secure, the government began an intense propaganda campaign. Huge red banners were attached to the sides of green troop trucks with slogans like, "We must defeat the terrorists" and "Oppose ethnic separatism and hatred." In the past, China has accused a militant group known as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement of leading a violent separatist movement in Xinjiang.
On the walls of dingy concrete apartment buildings were posters that said, "Don't listen to any rumors" and "Keep calm and maintain public order." Police cars with loudspeakers urged people to stop the violence.
The anger and fear was almost palpable in many neighborhoods across the city of 2.3 million.
Construction worker Zhang, 27, said he was seething over his mother's death. Earlier this week, he grabbed a club and joined groups of vigilantes who were trying to hunt down Uighurs.
"I thought if I catch one, I will kill him," Zhang said.
He said his mother, Luo Xiangni, was a scrap collector and was wandering the streets looking for recyclable material near a major market Sunday when the rioting erupted. The 58-year-old woman was missing for four days, he said, and the family searched all the hospitals for her. Finally, they found her photo in a police database of the dead, but
they can't reclaim her body until DNA tests are finished, he said.
The woman's husband, Zhang Quanxing, 57, said he heard that she was beaten to death with stones and sticks but police gave no details.
The widower said he felt safe with the thousands of paramilitary police on the street.
"What will happen when they leave?" he said, "This can happen again. I feel helpless."
At the nearby Autonomous Region Chinese Medicine Hospital, a group of victims was trying to heal both physical and psychological wounds. The 14 patients in blue checkered pajamas, who did not identify themselves, sat around a huge square table for a group therapy session led by a soft-spoken therapist in a white coat. She went from person to person asking, "What are you feeling?"
One Han Chinese worker in his 20s with a large cut on his forehead and two black eyes said Uighurs attacked him on the sidewalk.
"I've got to say that I have a lot of inner conflict about ethnic issues now," he said. "But I know only a small group of people were involved, and I hope all the ethnic groups can unite."
A middle-aged woman with tousled short hair and a big white bandage on her left cheek said Uighurs stopped her car and beat her when she got out.
"I just don't want to think about what happened because my work unit has many minorities and we always got along fine," she said.
Several Uighur patients were at the hospital recovering from injuries sustained in attacks by the Han on Tuesday. Hospital officials would not allow an Associated Press reporter to interview them because they said the patients were attacked more recently and weren't psychologically ready to speak to the media.
Uighurs, who often complain of discrimination, have been accusing the government of dwelling on the Han victims and neglecting to tell their side of the story. Many say the rioting was the result of years of pent-up anger over government policies they say have marginalized them and threatened their culture.
A few blocks away from the hospital, Uighur hotel clerk Ablimit — who declined to give his full name — was convalescing in a dingy rooftop dormitory room for hotel workers.
"I was at the front desk on Tuesday when the Han Chinese men stormed into the lobby," the tall, thin 23-year-old man with a slight mustache said. "Another worker and I ducked into a tiny room near the front desk and shut the door. But the mob broke through the door and beat me with a stick and hacked at my head with a long knife."
The staff room's blue-and-white tile floor and vinyl sofa were still stained with blood. Ablimit had a bandage on his head, held in place by a white hair net. He had deep cuts on his legs and a huge purple bruise on his upper right arm, where he said the attackers struck him with a club.
When asked to describe his feelings about the attack, his boss told him not to answer. So Ablimit fell silent and just stared at the ceiling.
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Associated Press writer Gillian Wong in Urumqi contributed to this report.
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