12 get death penalty over riots

Posted on Oct. 21, 2009 at 12:05 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Beijing - China on Thursday sentenced six more people to death over bloody ethnic unrest in its far-western Xinjiang region in July, bringing the total to 12 as it delivered harsh retribution over the violence.

State media said three of the six were sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve, a penalty usually commuted to life in prison, over the July 5 violence that left 197 dead in the worst ethnic violence in China in decades.

A court in the regional capital Urumqi sentenced three others to rope pearl necklace life in jail and five people to lesser prison terms for their involvement in the unrest that rocked the city, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The July violence, which pitted mainly Muslim minority Uighurs against members of China's dominant Han group, also left more than 1 600 injured.

A total of 21 defendants have been tried and convicted since Monday of murder and other crimes such as intentional property damage, arson, and robbery. Security had been ratcheted up in Urumqi ahead of the trials.

Six Uighurs were given the death penalty on Monday and another sent to prison for life, in a move which Uighur exiles said would further stoke ethnic tensions in the region bordering Central Asia.

On Thursday, one man with a Han Chinese name - Han Junbo - was among those sentenced to death for his role in beating a Uighur man to death, Xinhua said.

Another apparently Han man, Liu Bo, was given a 10-year jail term.

Five other defendants had names that appeared to wholesale pearl be Uighur, and the rest were not immediately identified, according to the report.

Bloody repression

A spokesperson for the city government in Urumqi confirmed on Thursday that verdicts had been announced, but said she had no further details. Officials at the local court were not immediately available for comment.

Uighur exiles strongly condemned the first riot-related death sentences on Monday, calling them the "first of the mass executions promised by the Chinese government".

"The Uighurs can do nothing other than hope that the world will stop China from continuing the bloody repression of the Uighur people," a statement e-mailed to AFP by the World Uighur Congress read.

Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled leader of the congress who lives in the United States, said on Tuesday during a visit to New Zealand that the death sentences would serve only to Keishi pearl "further enrage" her people.

Aside from the 21 tried this week, police have also detained around 700 people suspected of crimes related to the unrest, earlier reports have said.

China's roughly eight million Uighurs have long complained of religious, political and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities, and tensions have simmered in the Xinjiang region for years.

Uighurs say the July unrest was triggered when police cracked down on peaceful protests by Uighurs over a late June brawl at a factory in southern China that state media said left two Uighurs dead.

One ethnic Han man was sentenced to pearl jewelry wholesale death and a second handed a life prison term over that brawl in verdicts announced on Saturday in southern China.

Authorities, however, have blamed the Xinjiang unrest on "ethnic separatists", without providing any evidence.

Attacks spread in Xinjiang

Posted on Oct. 21, 2009 at 12:02 AM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Beijing - Mysterious needle attacks have spread to new cities in China's restive far-western region of Xinjiang, the China Daily said on Friday, although once again the assaults appear to be a mix of real and imagined.

Nearly 600 people in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, home to the native Muslim Uighurs, have said they were stabbed with needles over the last two weeks, leading to silver pearl necklace mass demonstrations by Han Chinese against a government they said could not guarantee their safety.

Nine suspects were detained in the cities of Hotan, Altay and Kashgar, the China Daily said.

The pattern of real and imagined attacks appears to be continuing. Of nine reported attacks in Hotan, three were actually pricked, while in Altay, four of five reported attacks were false alarms and in Kashgar, three of five were false alarms, the paper said, citing local officials.

Officials and state media blamed the attacks in Urumqi on separatists bent on destroying ethnic unity.

On July 5, a demonstration by Uighurs turned into a riot in which 197 people, mostly Han Chinese, were killed. Han Chinese launched revenge attacks two days later.

Since then, Urumqi has been cut off from internet access, international phone calls, and most text messaging, to freshwater pearl avoid a repeat of the violence. The result is that rumours reign supreme.

Panic

A police text message was the spark that ignited the rash of reports in the divided city of Urumqi. Five people died in unrest last week and tens of thousands poured into the streets to demand the ouster of the powerful regional Party Secretary, Wang Lequan.

"Recently, several residents were attacked by hypodermic syringes. Local police security departments have also uncovered a case in which assailants used syringes to attack passers-by," read the text message, sent to Urumqi residents on August 31.

"Please don't panic over the incident, and inform police officers if you find any suspects."

Panic they did.

By September 4, 513 people had turned up at police stations to opera or rope necklace report they had been jabbed, stabbed or pricked. They were tested for HIV, hepatitis and sexually transmitted diseases, adding to fears that the attacks would spread Aids. At least another 77 attacks have since been reported.

On Sept 3, Han Chinese crowded into People's Square demanding Wang's resignation for not ensuring their safety during the July riots, or against the mystery stabbers. The five died on Sept 3, when crowds beat up a Uighur man accused of jabbing a woman, and then attacked the ambulance ferrying him to hospital.

New orders punishing rumour-mongers and forbidding citizens from beating up suspects imply that the city government is trying to dampen the firestorm it started.

Looking for drama?

Most of the stabbings appear to be simple hysteria. Only 106 victims had shown signs of jabs, bumps or rashes as of September 4.

Some were pricked by sewing needles or pins, not syringes, doctors said. Other marks might be insect bites.

Authorities have revealed details of four crimes that appear to wholesale pearl jewelry have prompted the syringe warning.

On August 28, a 19-year-old Uighur followed a fruit seller home and stuck a pin in her buttocks.

On August 29, two Uighur drug addicts, a man and woman aged 22 and 34, used a syringe to mug a cabbie, stealing $100.

On August 31, a Uighur addict used a syringe with heroin in it to fend off arresting officers, some of whom were injured.

Authorities have not explained how the crimes by junkies and molesters comprise an organised plot.

Uighur leader condemns China

Posted on Oct. 20, 2009 at 11:56 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Melbourne - Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer accused Beijing of "heinous" crimes during last month's deadly Xinjiang riots as she addressed a protest outside Melbourne's Chinese consulate on Friday.

Kadeer, whose visit to Australia has been strongly opposed by China, told about 100 flag-waving demonstrators watched by a heavy police presence that Beijing had lied about the extent and nature of the July 5 violence.

The US-based head of the World Uighur Congress said the number of dead far exceeded China's official toll of 197, and denied she was responsible for inciting the violence, as claimed by Beijing.

"In order to wholesale pearl jewelry cover up their heinous crime, in order to divert attention and point the finger to others, the Chinese government accused me and the World Uighur Congress for allegedly instigating the so-called unrest," Kadeer said through an interpreter.

"We'd like to call on the international community, the United Nations and also the Australian government to call on the Chinese government to reveal the truth of the people who were killed, wounded, injured, imprisoned and those who died in Chinese government custody," she added.

Kadeer, a figurehead for the mainly Muslim Uighur minority, is here to attend a weekend screening of 10 Conditions of Love, a documentary about tin cup pearl necklace her life, despite protests from Beijing which calls her a "criminal".

Saturday's screening, which is sold out, has also drawn condemnation from China which tried to have the movie pulled from Melbourne's ongoing film festival.

Kadeer told the crowd they were engaged in a peaceful struggle for "freedom, for democracy, and for our human rights".

The Uighurs say pearl necklace they have suffered political and religious persecution since Chinese troops "peacefully liberated" the vast region 60 years ago.

China 'seizing Uighur men'

Posted on Oct. 20, 2009 at 11:53 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link

Beijing - Scores of Uighur men have disappeared since deadly ethnic riots in far-west China in July, seized by security forces who refuse to tell their families anything about their fate, a rights group said on Wednesday.

Police and soldiers swept through Uighur neighbourhoods of Urumqi, capital of northwestern Xinjiang region, in the days and weeks after the violence that killed nearly 200, bundling men into freshwater pearl vans or marching them away, Human Rights Watch said.

It gave first-hand accounts of more than 40 cases, but added that these were likely just "the tip of the iceberg".

Oil-rich Xinjiang is strategically located in central Asia, but is riven by ethnic tensions. Many Uighurs feel they are becoming an impoverished minority in their own homeland, and are angered by restrictions on their culture and Islamic religion.

Security forces moved in after protests by Uighurs in Urumqi on July 5 exploded into bloody attacks on residents, especially Han Chinese.

Streets were sealed off as police checked men's bodies for injuries that could hint they took part in violence and asked where they were during the riots, sometimes beating them.

Police also burst into homes and offices and seized men without pearl strand wholesale providing warrants or explanations, witnesses said, according to the report from the New York-based advocacy group.

'Constantly changing'

"Three of the policemen just twisted his arms and started dragging him out," the report quoted one father saying of a raid which began when police kicked open the door of his home.

After the Uighur protests and violence, some Han Chinese also took to the streets, vowing to take revenge for the bloodshed.

None of the Han Chinese interviewed reported disappearances, although the report said it was possible some had been affected.

Official data on the number of people detained have been sporadic and sometimes confusing, but they suggest the number is above 1 000.

A regional spokesperson who declined to cultured pearl jewelry be named said he could not immediately comment on the report or number of people in detention, but added that figure was "constantly changing".

Uighurs who did go to the police to ask about relatives were turned away or told there was no information, the report said.

While China often detains people and refuses access by family or lawyers, these cases are different because there was no acknowledgement that someone was being held, the report said.

- Reuters

RAINbow nation

Posted on Oct. 20, 2009 at 11:43 PM - 0 Comments - Post Comment - Link