【Mail Times】Chinese police break up crowd near HQ of party

九爷moper

AP - 2009年9月4日 23:38:27 By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
http://www.mail.com/Article.aspx/world/asia/APNews/Asia/20090904/U_AS-China-Protest?pageid=1

Police pushed back large crowds trying to march on Communist Party offices in Urumqi on Friday to voice anger at a lack of public security following a bizarre series of syringe stabbings that appeared ethnically motivated.

Chinese officials had put a security cordon around the western Chinese city a day earlier when more than 10,000 people, mostly from the Han Chinese majority, took to the streets to demand increased security in the Xinjiang regional capital, still jittery after riots two months ago left nearly 200 people dead.

The protesters want punishment for those behind the July riots between Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs and the culprits in a series of stabbing attacks with syringes or needles in the past two weeks that state media has said targeted predominantly Han victims.

The heaviest security in Urumqi is around the headquarters of Xinjiang party secretary Wang Lequan, an ally of President Hu Jintao.

Hundreds of young Han Chinese men protesting there Friday were met by armed police who marched into the crowd to push people back. After several surges forward the police in riot gear broke up the demonstrators, some who were singing the national anthem.

Security forces also used tear gas to break up protests, with the smell of the gas drifting over parts of the city.

Wang, who spoke to protesters Thursday to call for support and restraint, appears to have become a target for public dissatisfaction, with people chanting for him to step down.

No arrests were seen and the security forces did not appear to be using excess force in breaking up the crowds. But armed police did seize video and still cameras from cameramen and photographers from The Associated Press who were covering the protest.

The party headquarters is several blocks from People's Square in central Urumqi. Paramilitary police with shields, sticks and submachine guns slung over their backs had already sealed off the square by Thursday night.

Calls to the press office of the Xinjiang government were not answered Friday. Chen Li, a staffer at the media center at the Haide Hotel in Urumqi, said that there had not been any gatherings or clashes near the Xinjiang government or Xinjiang Communist Party offices.

Other residents voiced anger Friday that the government had not done enough to protect them from the stabbings.

"People are angry at the government, they are scared. We are living under conditions that are not normal," said Zhou Yijun, a government office worker who stood smoking outside his apartment block.

Another man, who would give only his surname Zheng, said people were very upset about the stabbings and described relations between Han Chinese and Uighurs as "very bad."

"These people making trouble, we catch one, we kill one," said Zheng.

The demonstrations to air grievances is likely to further unnerve the Chinese leadership -- already grappling with tens of thousands of increasingly large and violent protests every year -- as it prepares for a nationwide celebration of 60 years of communist rule on Oct. 1, underpinned by what the party says are shows of minority unity and support.

The unrest shows how unsettled Urumqi remains despite continued high security since 197 people were killed in the worst communal violence to hit Xinjiang province in more than a decade. The rioting began in Urumqi on July 5 when a protest by Muslim Uighurs spiraled out of control, and Uighurs attacked Han. Days later, Han vigilantes tore through Uighur neighborhoods to retaliate.

State media reports said most of the victims of the needle stabbings were Han Chinese, suggesting these attacks were also ethnically motivated. Fears of AIDS also could be adding to concerns. Xinjiang has the highest rate of infections in China, with about 25,000 cases of HIV reported last year -- fueled by needle-sharing among drug users.

All told, 476 people have sought treatment for stabbings, though only 89 had obvious signs of being pricked and no deaths, infections or poisonings occurred, the TV report said. The official Xinhua News Agency said 21 people had been detained. While none of the reports gave a motive, the TV report said almost all the victims, 433, were Han Chinese with the rest from eight other ethnic groups.

Any trouble in Xinjiang is magnified through a prism of ethnic tensions. The Uighurs see Xinjiang as their homeland and resent the millions of Han Chinese who have poured into the region in recent decades.

The Uighurs say the Han have unfairly benefited from the riches of Xinjiang, a strategically vital Central Asian region with significant oil and gas deposits. Meanwhile, the Han often stereotype Uighurs as lazy, more concerned with religion than business, and unfairly favored by set-aside quotas for government jobs and university places.