Uighur killings seen as reprisal against Chinese injustice

(TibetanReview.net, Nov30, 2010) At least eight Chinese settlers had been killed in three towns in East Turkestan (Chinese: Xinjiang) in what were believed to be attacks by Uyghurs to avenge deprivation, discrimination and injustice on their own land by the Chinese authorities, according to a Radio Free Asia online (RFA) report Nov 26. “The Chinese population in [Xinjiang] has reached 40 percent from 4 percent in 1949. It’s impossible that the speed of the increase wouldn’t concern and anger Uyghurs,” Germany-based World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilshat Raxit was quoted as saying.

The RFA report said there were three attacks by ethnic Uyghurs in November in a possible reflection of growing frustration over the preferential treatment of Chinese immigrants by government officials in the region. It cited local police as saying the attacks took place in two towns within Yengishahar county, in Kashgar prefecture’s Kashgar district, and in Maralbeshi county.

The report cited the police as saying six Chinese had died at No. 8 village in Aral on Nov 12 and two in Yengerik, both towns in Yengishahar county. The report noted that the chief of the Aral police station denied earlier reports that suggested as many as 11 people were killed there.

Nineteen Uighurs were reported to have been detained by Nov 19 in possible connection with the incidents.

The report cited an unnamed staff member from the Maralbeshi county government as saying there had been other killings as well, such as the beheading of several Chinese immigrants in Hoten prefecture and Poskam county of Kashgar just before the Kurban Eid [Muslim holiday].

The report cited the staff member as saying the attacks were sparked by "injustices" against Uyghurs by Han Chinese in the region. “Two months ago in Kashgar [city], there was a big traffic incident and 14 Uyghurs were killed. But we heard that the Chinese driver had not been prosecuted and the families of the victims had not been compensated,” he was quoted as saying.

He had further said that while the killings in Aral town were an act of revenge for this, “the recent spate of these incidents and the government’s controlling of this information shows that it could have been a form of organized political resistance.”

The man was further quoted as explaining: “It’s all about migration problems. Many Uyghurs have lost their farmland and most of the farmland is controlled by the Chinese immigrants. Whenever they hear about immigrants, the locals get irritated. This is the situation.”

Nov 30, 2010

Source: Tibetan Review.
Link: http://www.tibetanreview.net/news.php?cat=2&&id=7803.