Word: uighurs
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...Have the events in Iran inspired the demonstrators in Urumqi? Probably there's a connection, but I don't see it. There's been a simmering discontent among Uighurs about Chinese policies in East Turkistan [the Uighur name for the Chinese province of Xinjiang] for the past 60 years. And there's been severe discrimination against Uighurs...
...Masses of security forces paraded through the streets of Urumqi on the morning of July 8. Some 40 trucks filled with rifle-toting People's Armed Police crept through the largely Uighur area near the Grand Bazaar, in the south of the city, as a military helicopter made sweeps overhead. Dozens of Uighurs eating breakfast at street stalls walked out to watch the procession. "There are so many," said one young man, shaking his head in disbelief. (See pictures of China's race riots...
...July 7, thousands of club-wielding Han Chinese mobilized on the streets, clearly intent on revenge. Military police blocked them from moving south into Uighur neighborhoods, at times firing tear gas. Xinjiang People's Hospital in the city center took in at least a dozen Uighurs who were beaten. One patient, 22-year-old Abdul, says he was attacked by a crowd of about 100 Han men. He suffered a head injury and a broken arm. (See TIME's China covers...
...There was fear that the violence might spread overnight. The government enforced a curfew, and in the morning Uighur districts appeared largely undisturbed. On July 8 small groups gathered in both Uighur and Han areas, but few people were carrying clubs and knives. There were reports of scattered attacks, but no large-scale violence. Dozens of trucks and hundreds of troops lined Renmin Road, a major east-west corridor that roughly separates the Uighur and Han districts...
...government has blamed the unrest on Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur activist who lives in the U.S. She has denied any connection to the violence, and says it was the Chinese government's crackdown on the peaceful demonstration by Uighurs that led to the riot...