URUMQI, China, (Reuters) – Paramilitary police fanned out in the far-flung Chinese city of Urumqi yesterday to try to stifle unrest days after 156 people were killed in the region’s worst ethnic violence in decades.
Han Chinese took to the streets for the second day running, and even with helicopters overhead there were scuffles in at least one crowd of about 1,000 as police appeared to seize ringleaders, prompting cries of “release them”.
Urumqi, capital of the northwestern region of Xinjiang, imposed a curfew the previous evening after thousands of Han Chinese armed with sticks, knives and metal bars stormed through the city seeking revenge against Muslim Uighurs for Sunday’s violence.
The instability prompted President Hu Jintao to abandon plans to attend a G8 summit in Italy and return home to monitor developments in energy-rich Xinjiang, where 1,080 people were wounded in rioting and 1,434 arrested.
Financial markets appeared unaffected and life was returning to the streets of Uighur neighbourhoods.
Residents said night-time arrests were continuing and they had amassed collections of bricks and metal rods, and set up impromptu barricades to defend themselves against further Han attacks.
Officials played down the unrest as heavy security, including thousands of security forces and armed personnel carriers, brought peace to central parts of the city.
“Most of the public were quite restrained,” Urumqi’s Communist Party Boss Li Zhi said of Tuesday’s violence.
“A handful of Han attacked Uighurs and there were a handful of Uighurs who attacked Han … this handful of violent elements has been caught by the police and now the situation has been quelled,” he added at a news conference in the Xinjiang capital.
There was no official curfew, although by early evening the streets were emptying and vehicles with bullhorns drove around telling people to “go home as quickly as possible”.
The government has given no details of the number of injured on Tuesday or whether anyone was killed, and the lack of information was fuelling rumours.
A man in his 50s, who gave his name as Mohammed Ali, said he had heard from neighbours and friends that two men had died and two were seriously wounded. Others reported a higher toll.
“Now we are scared to go anywhere,” Mohammed Ali told Reuters. “Doing even simple things becomes frightening.”
The population of Urumqi, about 3,300 km (2,000 miles) west of Beijing, is mostly Han.
Some of the Uighurs’ fears were borne out downtown. In one street, two young boys were surrounded by an angry Han mob, with dozens trying to pull them down and grabbing their hair.