Daily Lessons from Life 08 July 2009

"Chinese troops flood into restive Urumqi
President Hu Jintao abandoned a Group of Eight summit in Italy to return to China. -Wed, Jul 08, 2009 AFP

URUMQI, China (AFP) - Mobs wielding makeshift weapons roamed this restive city Wednesday, with vigilantes pummelling two Uighur Muslims, despite a massive show of force by Chinese troops that brought some calm.


President Hu Jintao abandoned a Group of Eight summit in Italy, in what observers said was an unprecedented move, to tackle one of China's worst spikes in ethnic tensions in decades.

In Urumqi, the capital of the remote northwest Xinjiang region where 156 people died in unrest on Sunday, army helicopters circled overhead as thousands of soldiers and riot police filled the city shouting out "protect the people".

"We support this," said a 45-year-old Han Chinese as he watched the troops roll by in trucks.


"But they should have got here sooner. It took them three days to do this. Why so long?"

After authorities blamed Muslim Uighurs for Sunday's unrest that also left more than 1,000 people injured, Han Chinese took to the streets Tuesday with shovels, meat cleavers and other makeshift weapons vowing to defend themselves.


After a night-time curfew was declared on Tuesday, Chinese authorities appeared determined to show they were able to maintain order.

Thousands of riot police wearing helmets and carrying shields lined up on a main road in Urumqi dividing the city centre from a Uighur district, with columns of soldiers behind them.


The security build-up had an impact with fewer people wielding makeshift weapons taking to the streets, and Urumqi mayor Jerla Isamudin told reporters in the late afternoon that the situation in the city was "under control".

He also warned that anyone found guilty of murder in connection to the unrest would be given the death penalty. But tensions remained high, with some Han Chinese and Uighurs continuing to arm themselves with sticks, poles, knives and other weapons, leading to confrontations and violence, according to AFP reporters.


In one of two attacks witnessed by AFP reporters, about 20 Han Chinese men armed with wooden bats attacked a Uighur man in central Urumqi.

In the second incident, a group of Han Chinese saw three Uighurs at an intersection and chased them. Two of the Uighurs escaped, but a third was caught by some of the crowd and he was assaulted for around 30 seconds, before police took him away. AFP reporters said he had blood on his face after the beating.


In another incident, about 200 Uighurs armed with sticks, pipes and rocks began protesting directly in front of a police cordon that was dividing their neighbourhood from a Han-populated area, an AFP reporter witnessed.

The crowd of Uighurs grew after a helicopter dropped leaflets blaming Sunday's unrest on exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, but they also claimed police had overnight allowed Han Chinese to freely attack Muslim areas.


In a BBC interview on Wednesday, Kadeer blamed Chinese policies for the violent unrest and claimed the death toll from riots was "much higher" than the 156 stated by Beijing.

Xinjiang's eight million Uighurs make up nearly half the population of the region, a vast area of deserts and mountains rich in natural resources that borders Central Asia. The Turkic-speaking people have long complained of repression and discrimination under Chinese rule, but Beijing insists it has brought economic prosperity to the region."

So it looked pretty serious with the President cutting short his G8 trip.

Lessons for me are:

1. never underestimate the power of hatred between different ethic groups even if they are within the same country!! It has happened with groups with different religions too;

2. this highlight why Singapore government is so adamant and guard with ferocity the boundary of never allowing Singaporeans and anyone from breaching the racial, language and religious limits! It is simply too explosive and uncontrollably raw emotional without any rationality when these topics are attacked!;

3. I personally believe the Uighur in Xinjiang and the Tibetans in Tibet are very different from the Hans. This is a big challenge for the Chinese to make peace and sense with this issue. It has to be full integration with mixed marriages and fully living their others' customs can the barriers be truly broken down.

May there be peace quickly restored in Xinjiang and the two ethic groups make peace soon. For the sake of humanity and the stability of China!