Chinese try to heal psychological wounds of unrest

Published on July 10, 2009 by brooks | This story has been viewed 148 times

URUMQI, China – Construction worker Zhang Binkun was seething over the death of his mother, whom he believes was killed by a mob of Uighurs with sticks and stones.

So he grabbed a club and joined a group of Han Chinese vigilantes trying to hunt down Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority in this remote part of western China.

“I thought if I catch one, I will kill him,” Zhang said.

It is this fury and thirst for revenge — on both sides — that scares the Chinese government, because it is fuelling the worst ethnic rioting to hit western China in decades. More than 150 people have died in fighting this week in Xinjiang’s capital, Urumqi, a city of 2.3 million people.

Chinese officials ordered mosques in Urumqi to suspend Friday prayers for the sake of public safety, a government worker at the Yang Hang mosque said. She declined to give her name.

Separately, officials in the southwestern Xinjiang city of Kashgar told journalists and other foreigners to leave to ensure their safety, the city’s foreign affairs office said, although the agency said there has been no unrest in the city.

In Urumqi, the government has launched a new campaign — with banners, loudspeakers and even group therapy sessions — to try and end anger and violence that threatens to spiral out of control.

Huge red banners on the sides of green troop trucks blared slogans like, “Oppose ethnic separatism and hatred.” Posters on the walls of dingy concrete apartment buildings begged, “Don’t listen to any rumors” and “Keep calm and maintain public order.” Police in cars with loudspeakers urged people to stop the violence.

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.

It will not be easy.

At the Autonomous Region Chinese Medicine Hospital, 14 patients in blue checkered pajamas 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 also at the hospital recovering from injuries sustained in attacks by the Han. Hospital officials would not allow an Associated Press reporter to interview them because they said the patients weren’t psychologically ready to speak to the media.

The 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. With government incentives to migrate to Xinjiang, Han Chinese now make up 40 percent of the population, compared to just 6 percent half a century ago.

The violence began Sunday when the Uighurs 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.

Both sides are afraid of what will happen when the troops leave. The husband of the woman beaten to death, Luo Xiangni, has been afraid ever since he heard what happened to her, and said he feels safe only with the police on the streets.

“What will happen when they leave?” said Zhang Quanxing, 57. “This can happen again. I feel helpless.”

Luo, a scrap collector, was wandering the streets looking for recyclable material near a major market Sunday when the rioting first erupted. The 58-year-old woman was missing for four days, 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, her husband said.

Across town, Uighur hotel clerk Ablimit — who declined to give his full name — was suffering from a knife wound to his head and severe bruising inflicted by rampaging Han Chinese. He was recovering in a 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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