China raises death toll to 18 in Xinjiang violence

20 Jul 2011 03:58

Source: reuters // Reuters

(Recasts, updates throughout, adds byline)

By Ben Blanchard

BEIJING, July 20 (Reuters) - China on Wednesday raised the death toll to 18 from a clash at a police station in the restive far western region of Xinjiang, saying that 14 "rioters" died along with two policemen and two hostages in the worst violence there in a year.

Government officials previously said at least four people were killed in what they described as a terrorist attack but which the Germany-based exile group World Uyghur Congress said was an attack on peaceful protesters.

The congress had said 20 Uighurs were killed -- 14 beaten to death and 6 shot dead -- and 70 arrested, when police opened fire on protesters, leading to fighting between the two sides.

The clash marked the worst violence in about a year in the far western region, home to many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people native to the area, many of whom resent the growing presence of majority Han Chinese in Xinjiang.

The Xinjiang government's website (www.xinjiang.gov.cn) said that police fatally shot the 14 rioters after giving "legal education and warnings", adding that 18 rioters had bought and made weapons and sneaked into the desert city of Hotan days before the clash on Monday.

The report said the rioters, armed with axes, knives, daggers, Molotov cocktails and explosive devices, "crazily beat, smashed and set on fire" the police station, and hung "flags of extreme religion" on the top of the station.

It said two policemen and two hostages were also killed in the clash, and that four of the rioters were arrested.

"It was an organized, premeditated and severe violent terrorist attack to local politics-and-law departments," the report said.

The differing accounts from the government and exile group could not be independently verified.

The website also showed three pictures it said were taken on the scene of the incident, showing police with guns storming into a police station, which in one photo was on fire.

Reuters could not verify the authenticity of the pictures.

"REPRESSION MAKING SITUATION WORSE"

Rights groups say Xinjiang remains under tight security, more than two years after its capital Urumqi was rocked by violence between Han Chinese and Uighurs that killed nearly 200 people.

Since then, China has executed nine people it blamed for instigating the riots, detained and prosecuted hundreds and ramped up spending on security, according to state media and overseas rights groups.

"China's strengthening of repression and controls has only made the situation worse," said Dilxat Raxit, of the World Uyghur Congress. "China uses force to put down any kind of peaceful protest by Uighurs."

The Global Times, a popular tabloid published by Communist Party mouthpiece the People's Daily, said incidents such as that in Hotan "will not lead to collapse as some Westerners have predicted".

"They will not have a colossal impact even if they take place at Tiananmen Square in downtown Beijing," it said in an editorial in its English-language edition.

"Those who underestimate China's social capacity actually underestimate the ensure nation," it added. "As for terrorism, the authorities should take a tough stand and ignore unreasonable rebukes from the West."

Beijing, wary of instability and the threat to the Communist Party's grip on power, often blames what it calls violent separatist groups in Xinjiang for attacks on police or other government targets, saying they work with al Qaeda or Central Asian militants to bring about an independent state called East Turkestan.

Xinjiang is strategically vital to China and Beijing has shown no sign of loosening its grip.

A vast swath of territory, accounting for one-sixth of China's land mass, Xinjiang holds rich deposits of oil and gas and borders Afghanistan, Pakistan, India and Central Asia. (Additional reporting by Sally Huang; Editing by Nick Macfie)


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Obama's half brother happy to live in China
2011-06-25 04:41:15 GMT2011-06-25 12:41:15(Beijing Time) China Daily
US President Barack Obama's half brother Mark Obama Ndesandjo autographs for a reader his new book Nairobi to Shenzhen: A Novel of Love in the East in Beijing on Friday. Wang Jing / China Daily
US President Barack Obama's half brother Mark Obama Ndesandjo autographs for readers his new book Nairobi to Shenzhen: A Novel of Love in the East in Beijing on Friday. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

BEIJING - US President Barack Obama's half brother said he hoped the Chinese version of his book will help China and the United States understand each other better.

"I hope that my book will let Chinese people know more about some aspects of American life, and on the other hand, I hope it will help those in America and other parts of the world understand China," said Mark Obama Ndesandjo, who lives in China.

He was talking exclusively to China Daily ahead of a news conference in Beijing on Friday to mark the release of the Chinese translation of his semi-autobiographical book, Nairobi to Shenzhen: A novel of Love in the East.

The book, originally released in English in 2009, is billed as a part-fiction, part-fact account of his journey to China.

"The book is not only about the theme of family, it's also about China, it's about Shenzhen," he said referring to the city in Guangdong province he has called home for the last nine years.

Ndesanjo, who has adopted the transliterated Chinese name De Ma Ke, said he was drawn to China to learn the language and culture while helping orphans learn to play the piano.

A percentage of the proceeds from sales of the book will go toward helping orphans in China.

He said his decision to write the book as fiction was in part because he had still not yet come to terms with his childhood.

"I imagined if I was my father and I was writing a diary, what would I say? So I started to write that diary."

Obama senior died in an traffic accident in 1982 aged 46.

Ndesandjo, who was born in Kenya but has US citizenship and a physics degree from Stanford University, first came to China in 2001 after leaving his telemarketing job following the Sept 11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York.

He said the current conditions in the United States are similar to those that first inspired him to look at his life and move out of the country.

"I went through what a lot of people are going through right now," he said, referring to the economic hardship people are suffering in the US.

He is not sure whether he will stay in China or eventually move back to the US.

"Tomorrow I don't know, but right now I am happy in China," he said.

He also revealed that he is in the final stages of writing a memoir about life in the Obama family.

Ndesanjo declined to discuss specifics about the memoir, but said it would go into detail about growing up with the US president's father.

The normally media-shy half brother, who was born to Barack Obama Sr's third wife after he divorced the president's mother, hinted the upcoming memoir would be more in-depth about his brief relationship with the US leader as well as providing more details about his childhood.

"It will all become much clearer," he told China Daily.

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INSIGHT-China's war on terror widens Xinjiang's ethnic divide=2
09 Sep 2011 00:42

Source: reuters // Reuters


living will rise hugely and that will naturally benefit stability," said Jia Tingyi, deputy head of Yarkand county, close to the old Silk Road city of Kasghar, a hotbed of unrest.

"All peoples of Xinjiang will benefit from development, not just one ethnicity," he said at the trade fair, which boasts it aims to turn Urumqi into a global trading hub

"There are only a small number of bad people in Xinjiang in any case," added Jia, an ethnic Han.

The fair, whose guest of honour was Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, also underscored the challenge facing China in trying to bridge Xinjiang's yawning ethnic divide.

Almost all the Chinese companies present were Han owned, with those few Uighurs who made it through the security cordon mostly made up of officials, reporters for state media and heavily made-up young women ushers.

"All this trade fair has meant to me is a drop in business because the government has banned people from the rest of Xinjiang coming here for security reasons," grumbled clothes seller Abdul.

Another clumsily handled recent policy meant to help Uighurs has been bilingual education. This is not aimed at teaching the Han to speak Uighur, something few of them try. Instead, Mandarin is replacing Uighur as the main language of instruction at Uighur schools, the aim being that fluent Mandarin will give greater job opportunities for Uighurs.

That hasn't helped Akhbar, who graduated from a top Xinjiang university with a science degree and speaks perfect Mandarin. He says he has been unable to find any work better than selling imported Pakistani nick-nacks to tourists.

"Now they are trying to wipe out our language too, forcing our children to do almost all of their schooling in Mandarin. I would say 99 percent of Uighur people oppose this," he said.

More than a few Uighurs say their only alternative may be to draw closer to Islam, and by doing so, further the distance between themselves and the officially atheist Communist Party, as well as the Han Chinese. While many Uighur women in Urumqi dress in much the same casual fashions as their Han counterparts, others have begun to wear full veils.

Some swathe themselves head-to-toe in black.

"I think it's a very special thing to do, to keep yourself for your man's eyes only," said student Golbari, 18, wearing a t-shirt and tight jeans.

"I might like to try it one day. It's the international trend in the Muslim world," she added. "But I'm not sure my parents would approve. They're very liberal." (Editing by Nick Macfie and Brian Rhoads)===================China says Xinjiang kidnappers were on "holy war"04 Jan 2012 09:14Source: Reuters // ReutersBEIJING, Jan 4 (Reuters) - China said on Wednesday that seven people killed by police in the restive far western region of Xinjiang last week had been trying to leave the country to wage "holy war" and had kidnapped some herders on their way to the border.The kidnappers took two people hostage late last Wednesday in Pishan County in the far southern part of Xinjiang, close to the borders of India and Pakistan, state media reported.Seven of the suspects were shot dead and four were wounded and caught, while the two hostages were freed. One policeman was also killed, state media said."The people in question were trying to cross the border to go overseas for the purposes of so-called holy war," Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing."They kidnapped some herders, who took the opportunity to escape and tell the public security authorities, who demanded (the kidnappers) abandon their plans," he said."While this was happening they cruelly murdered some Chinese policemen and also caused many injuries. This is very obviously a violent terrorist incident," Hong said.He declined to comment on whether the kidnappers had links with Pakistan. China has in the past accused militant Uighurs of working with supporters in Pakistan to plan attacks in Xinjiang.Pishan is a heavily Uighur area of Xinjiang. The Uighurs are a Turkic-speaking Muslim people who call Xinjiang home, many of whom chafe at government controls on their culture and religion.However, exile groups and human rights activists say China overstates the nature of the threat posed by militants in Xinjiang to justify its harsh policies.The region has been beset by ethnic strife and sometimes violent unrest.In July 2009, Uighurs rioted against Han Chinese residents in Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, killing at least 197 people, mostly Han, according to official estimates.Xinjiang sits astride south and central Asia. China sees it as a bulwark in this volatile part of the world, making it all the more jumpy about unrest.In September, courts in Xinjiang sentenced four people to death for violence in two cities over the summer in which 32 people were killed.The government blamed the incidents in Kashgar and Hotan -- both in the majority Uighur southern part of Xinjiang -- on religious hardliners and separatists who want to establish an independent state called East Turkestan for their people. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard)======================================

12 killed in Xinjiang ethnic strife

Wed, 29 Feb 2012 01:57:12 GMT

Twelve people have been killed in clashes between ethnic Uyghurs and Han Chinese in the Kashgar prefecture of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Chinese state media said "violent mobs" armed with knives launched attacks in Yecheng county on Tuesday, killing 10 people. Police then shot and killed two of the assailants.

It was not immediately clear what triggered the violence.

The police are tracking down the culprits.

Security has been high in the northwestern region of Xinjiang since riots in July 2009, when Uyghurs and members of the country's dominant Han group clashed in the regional capital Urumqi.

Chinese officials say nearly 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured in the unrest of 2009, which was China's worst ethnic strife in decades.

Almost half of Xinjiang's residents are Muslim Uyghurs, who complain that large-scale migration of Han Chinese workers from the east has cost them jobs and is eroding their culture.

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