Police told Abdullah not to leave home on today’s anniversary of deadly ethnic violence in China’s Urumqi city, where the bustle belies continued deep racial divisions and fears of more unrest.
“They told us we can’t go out on July 5 and they also came around on Thursday to gather all our big knives,” the 46-year-old said, drinking tea at his restaurant in the Uighur quarter.
The capital of far-western Xinjiang region, Urumqi was torn in two on July 5 last year as the mainly Muslim Uighur minority vented decades of resentment of Chinese rule with attacks on members of China’s dominant Han ethnic group.
Han mobs took to the streets in the following days seeking revenge. Nearly 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured in all, the government says, in the worst ethnic violence in China in decades.
China blamed “separatists” for orchestrating the unrest.
Tensions in the city again boiled over in September last year after a spate of syringe attacks — which many victims blamed on Uighurs — led to days of protests that left five people dead.
Uighurs, Xinjiang’s Turkic-speaking, central Asian people, say they live under fear of being detained on suspicion of fomenting trouble, while some Han say they are prepared for the worst if trouble breaks out again.
Authorities appeared to be bracing for the anniversary, with police conducting massive anti-riot exercises and 40,000 security cameras installed throughout the city.
Residents say security forces — already beefed up after last year’s unrest — have deployed in ever greater numbers in recent days and armed police were seen patrolling the city of more than 2 million people on the weekend.
Pointing to gates authorities erected on the road where he lives to keep out outsiders, Abdullah said he feared Han mobs could go on the attack again.
“Those are going to be locked on the anniversary,” he said.
In a report issued on Friday, London-based Amnesty International cited “excessive use of force, mass arrests, enforced disappearances, torture and ill treatment” of prisoners during the crackdown that quelled the unrest.
“Amnesty International is calling on China to set up an independent and impartial inquiry into the human rights abuses committed by all participants in the Urumqi unrest,” the group said in a statement.
At least 26 people have been sentenced to death for their roles in the unrest, with at least nine already executed, it said.
Uighurs have long alleged decades of Chinese oppression and unwanted Han immigration, and while standards of living have improved, Uighurs complain most of the gains go to Han Chinese.
“The veil came off [in the unrest]. People began to realize how deeply the ethnic animosity runs between Han and Uighurs,” said Dru Gladney, an expert on Uighurs at Pomona College in California.
Restaurants and shops in the city were open and busy on the weekend. Mosques were packed for Friday prayers in the Uighur quarter, with some faithful spilling onto the pavement.
At one mosque, Muslim men prayed in the shadow of a large sign urging people to oppose separatism and “Uphold the unity of the motherland,” as armed riot police watched.
Text-messaging services, overseas calls and the Internet — cut off amid the violence because of fears they could be used to fuel it — have gradually been restored, although some Uighur-language Web sites remain blocked.
Many Han said the situation was back to normal, adding the police presence would prevent more unrest today, but the wounds and fear are just below the surface.
One Han Chinese man surnamed Wang who owns a drinks stall near the city center said he would be on his guard today.
“We’re mentally prepared now — if something happens, I know where to get to a safe place quickly,” he said.
Many Uighurs refused to be interviewed, fearing police reprisals. Others bitterly alleged continued oppression and some complained large numbers of Uighurs were taken away by police after the unrest, their fates unknown.
A Uighur businessman who refused to be named said his 20-year-old brother was sentenced to nine years in prison for throwing a stone at a car in last year’s trouble.
“That’s unimaginably strict, and as you can imagine, it’s really difficult on my family,” he said.
Xinjiang enjoyed long spells of autonomy in its history, but China’s 1949 Communist takeover led Beijing to emphatically assert its sovereignty claims.
While China has not admitted policy failures, heads have rolled over the unrest, most notably Wang Lequan (王樂泉), Xinjiang’s most powerful official, who was removed in April and replaced with Zhang Chunxian (張春賢), a man seen as less hardline.
Abdullah was cautious that would make much difference.
“They [top officials] always seem better at the beginning, but then gradually, after half a year to a year, things get worse again,” he said.
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