More arrests over Xinjiang violence

AFP/Beijing

China blamed the violence in the western Chinese region on “terrorists”, but rights groups say the charge is used to justify the authorities’ use of force against members of a Muslim minority.

State-run broadcaster CCTV said yesterday that “another group of terrorists has been arrested”, citing senior security official Meng Hongwei and adding that police had seized weapons and flags belonging to a separatist group.

The report did not say how many people had been arrested.

Local authorities have said that eight members of the Uighur ethnic group were arrested in connection with last week’s unrest in the region, which is often hit by violence.

Chinese officials have said that 15 police officers and social workers were among the 21 killed in gun fights on April 23 in Barchuk county.

Many Uighurs complain of religious and cultural repression by Chinese authorities, which rights groups identify as the source of unrest in Xinjiang. Chinese authorities and state media often blame the unrest on “terrorism”.

“The claims of terrorism are suspected of being an excuse to oppress Uighurs,” Dilshat Rexit, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress which is run by exiled members of the minority, said in an e-mail.

He called on Chinese authorities to publish an independent investigation into their accusations of terrorism, echoing an earlier call by the US which was dismissed by China as evidence of a “double standard”.

Local authorities in Xinjiang have attempted to stop females from wearing full-veiled dress, and prevent males from wearing long beards, notices posted on local government websites showed.

“The practice of minority women and children wearing Arab clothing, and the wearing of full beards, will disappear,” said one notice on the website of Yining, a city in Xinjiang.

Violent riots involving Uighurs and members of China’s Han ethnic majority in Xinjiang’s capital Urumqi in 2009 killed around 200 people, leading the ruling Communist Party to tighten surveillance and boost investment in the region.

The region saw more than half of China’s “endangering state security” trials last year, but is home to less than two% of the country’s population, suggesting “ethnic discrimination”, the Dui Hua Foundation advocacy group said.

According to official figures, 46% of Xinjiang’s population is Uighur, while another 39% are Han Chinese, after millions moved to the area in recent decades.

Calls made yesterday to China’s Ministry of Public Security and Xinjiang’s regional government went unanswered.