On July 5, 2009, large scale riots broke out in Urumqi, the Capital City of XinJiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. They started with several thousand of Uyghurs' peacefully protesting in the city center. Later on, violent actions started. Some emotional Uyghur youths chased to kill Han Chinese, include women and children. Some broke into shops with violence, beat and killed the innocent civilians and burnt vehicles.
Almost two hours after the violence started, the Chinese government police started to interfere. Four to five hours had already passed from the gathering of large number of protesters, before the Chinese government mobilized police forces. Also according to reliable information, the Chinese government and police already knew in advance of the large-scale demonstration, yet did not take any precaution and warning action. They let the emotionally charged thugs in a mixed lot assault and murder people which cost more than thousands wounded and hundreds killed, including women and children.
Only after the violent actions had reached to the serious degree of burning, killing and robbing, the Chinese government set out their military police which had been hidden in advance. Large number of Uyghurs were massacred and arrested. This kind of action taken by the Chinese government that indulges violence instead of trying to stop it, has provoked extreme anger in the local Han Chinese. In the last a few days, large numbers of Han Chinese holding sticks and other weapons entered the Uyghurs' residential areas to provoke and to revenge. They were immediately dispersed by tear-gas bombs from the police.
From the process of the event development, it was obvious that the Chinese government wants to use the dissatisfied mood in the Chinese society to indulge and to guide people to give vent of violent mood. The Chinese government wants to use this method to produce ethnic conflict, thus to turn people's feelings against the government into ethnic conflicts. To provoke one people against another people is a consistent skill of the Chinese Communist Party over the past several decades. The government is in such a high degree of proficiency of this skill that it is almost flawless for the average people to observe and to realize.
Otherwise, how could the Chinese Communist Party announce at its earliest moment that the riot "was plotted and organized by the overseas reactionaries"? More, the government officials leading slogan of "Down with Rebiya". Obviously, the Chinese government planned beforehand and according to their plan, produced this bloody massacre. The Chinese Communist regime must take responsibility for all the people who were killed, including both Han Chinese and Uyghurs. The Chinese Communist regime in XinJiang is the real ringleader for the massacre and arrests.
Some friends were suspicious that the "World Uyghur Congress" lead by Rebiya Kadeer was part of the criminal act as well, and asked if they participated in this riot. I could responsibly tell you: that is impossible.
First, we can make our judgment from the history and current situation of Uyghurs' opposition organizations.
In the past, there were various oppositions within the Uyghurs, from those who were for peace, rational and non-violent approaches, to these who even supported terrorists. Until the end of the last century, due to the wealthy funding from some Muslim countries and organizations, the terrorist faction headquartered in central Asia was fairly large. Some of them initiated terrorist attacks against common citizens in China, which has not only disgusted by the Han Chinese, but also were generally opposed by the Uyghur people, as well as opposed by the international society.
So, in the joint conference by the World Uyghur Youth Congress and National Congress of East Turkistan in 2000, they had some resolutions, which included "being against any violent actions toward common people", "uniting other ethnic groups including Han Chinese for independence", and "taking a full scale cooperation with the Chinese democratic movement, in the future to solve the XinJiang issue by negotiation with a democratic government of China".
These resolutions have not just won the support of most Uyghur organizations over the globe, but also won the support of the majority of Uyghurs overseas and in XinJiang. This is the foundation for the "World Uyghur Congress" which emerged later on. Especially after the anti-terrorist war, the terrorist organizations which received financial and base trainings from Osama bin Laden were mostly cut off. The terrorist factions further reduced their activities.
The "World Uyghur Congress" emerged under such a background. So to forcefully tie it with terrorism is just a trick that the Chinese Communist Party used to graft rumors in an effort to defame. We should notice that, during the Beijing Olympics period last year, the violent attacks against the Chinese Communist regime by some Uyghurs targeted the Chinese police and armies, instead of the common people. That kind of action is different from "terrorism".
Surely the Chinese Communist knows all these, which are not secret. However, the first claim by the Chinese government after the Urumqi riot happened, was to declare that the "World Uyghur Congress" has organized and plotted the riot, and even named Rebiya Kadeer to be the ring leader. This act exactly exposed that the Chinese Communist Party had pre-planned this bloody massacre.
In addition, many observers have noticed the direct link between these Urumqi riots and the Uyghur-Han Chinese conflict that happened not long ago in ShaoGuan of GuangDong province. The Chinese government also admits that link. If we followed the logic of the Chinese Communist Party, then this ShaoGuan incident would also be plotted by Rebiya Kadeer. However, let us think it over, how it could be possible?!
Also, many observers have already noticed that the ShaoGuan incident was most likely fanned up by the Chinese regime. Without the cooperation and indulge of the regime, several past criminal cases cannot have grown into a riot of several thousand people and subsequently deaths. To form such a large scale riot by people spontaneous responding, could only be possible when there was no police action. In the city with dense population, the police could not claim that they did not know that, not to mention that ambulances arrived much earlier to take the wounded and dead people to the hospital.
To connect with ShaoGuan incident, we could conclude that the Urumqi riot is the action planned and taken by the Chinese Communist regime. Why would the Chinese Communist Party be so stupid? This question has made many people refuse to believe that the Chinese Communist Party is the murderer behind the scenes. We shall discuss this next time.
To hear Mr. Wei Jingsheng's commentary, please visit:
http://www.weijingsheng.org/RFA/RFA2009/WeiJS090708Urumqi1.mp3
(Written and recorded on July 8, 2009. Broadcasted by Radio Free Asia.)
