Xinjiang in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge Contemporary China Series) by Michael Dillon

Xinjiang in the Twenty-First Century (Routledge Contemporary China Series) by Michael Dillon

Author:Michael Dillon [Dillon, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138811058
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2018-10-02T15:00:00+00:00


1700 Demonstrations begin and numbers grow

1900 Rioters appear on the streets, according to officials

2020 Xinhua journalists report groups of rioters

2100 Attacks on individual Han residents severe

2245 Hospitals have received many casualties

0130 Man injured at 2100 is finally hospitalised

The time lag between injuries and hospitalisation in the late evening suggests problems of access and traffic chaos in the city, but the most significant feature of this chronology is the gap between 1700 and 1900 which is not covered at all in the official media reports. This suggests strongly that earlier information from Uyghur sources alleging the violent breakup of a peaceful demonstration should be taken seriously. If that information is correct, it would account for the sudden escalation after seven in the evening.

On the morning after the night of violence, traffic restrictions were partially lifted but Xinhua reported that there was still a great deal of tension in Urumqi. Most police roadblocks had been removed but some remained at Yan’an Road, Tuanjie Road and other main routes near Xinjiang University and in Ningxiawan in the suburbs. City employees had been clearing debris overnight and traffic flow was almost back to normal although, in the areas most seriously affected by the disturbances, damaged cars and buses were still being removed at first light. Armed police in riot gear were patrolling and firefighters were still at work putting out the last remaining fires. Most shops in the affected areas remained closed and at what is normally a busy market on Guangming Road there were only a few fruit and vegetable stalls where there would normally have been dozens.

On Monday, July 6, the official figures for casualties were given as 129 killed and 816 injured; the death toll was increased later that day to 140, one an officer of the People’s Armed Police.17 By July 7, the death toll had risen again to 156 (129 men and twenty-seven women) according to Li Yi, Director of the Public Relations Department of the Xinjiang Autonomous Regional CCP Committee. Police in riot gear continued to patrol Xinhua South Road and Renmin Road which were still blocked off to traffic. At the same time reports were beginning to emerge of similar unrest in other parts of Xinjiang including Kashgar (Kashi), Yining (Ghulja) Dawan in the Tianshan district and Aksu. Xinhua claimed that attempts to foment unrest had been foiled in all of these and very little detail has emerged from these towns except Kashgar where police dispersed a crowd of more than 200 people, many believed to be students or unemployed graduates, who gathered at the main Heytgah (Id Gah) Mosque at about six o’clock in the evening on Monday, July 6. Shops which would normally have been open were closed and only a few of the restaurants which would normally have been busy at ten o’clock, the traditional time for a light supper, were open for business. Police checkpoints were set up at various access points on the road between Kashgar Airport and the town centre.18

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