Explosion at site of massive China riots kills 7
A man detonates an explosives-packed electric trike in Xingjiang.
Government officials insist the region, where bloody ethnic protests left 200 dead last summer, is stable.
Reporting from Beijing —
A man drove an electric tricycle packed with explosives into a crowd in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang on Thursday. The blast, at the site of last summer's massive ethnic riots, killed seven people and injured 14 others.
Xinjiang government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin said a man was apprehended at the site of the explosion, which occurred outside the city of Aksu in the southwestern part of the province, near China's border with Kyrgyzstan.
The suspect and victims were all Uighur, a Turkic-speaking minority native to the region. The local government declared martial law and deployed large numbers of police, according to reports.
"It was an intentional act because the suspect was carrying explosive devices," Hou said Thursday at a news conference in Urumqi, the regional capital. But, he said, officials were still investigating the case. It was being treated as a criminal investigation, he said, but it was too early to say whether it was an act of terrorism.
Thursday's incident came just after the one-year anniversary of one of the country's worst instances of ethnic violence, when protests in Urumqi in July 2009 turned bloody and left 200 people dead and thousands others wounded. Officials labeled Thursday's bombing an unfortunate but insignificant incident and said, "overall," the situation in Xinjiang was stable.
"Xinjiang's development will not be affected by a small group of bad people," Hou said. "The overall situation in Xinjiang is good."
Some observers, however, said the attack was an ominous sign of a renewed campaign of violence by separatists.
The attack took place in a remote but resource-rich province of China closer to Central Asia than to Beijing. The Uighur Muslims have long resented the tight grip the Chinese government has on the region, which began in the 1990s after the region had enjoyed decades of autonomy.
As a result of government efforts to bring the country under one rule and develop its western regions, Han Chinese, the ethnic group that makes up almost 80% of China's population, have migrated to the region en masse.
Beijing has tried to appeal to the local Uighurs, who have voiced frustration over the influx of Han Chinese migrants, loss of jobs and what they say is the repression of their religion and culture. The Chinese government has launched large-scale campaigns in education and economic development.
Uighur rights activists say that what Chinese authorities have done is carry out "systemic oppression" of the Uighurs.
"After the Urumqi riots, there were still signs of resentment," said Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on terrorism and the author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror."
On July 5, the anniversary of last summer's riots, the World Uighur Congress posted a statement saying, "The human rights violations that the Chinese authorities have perpetrated against the Uighurs in the aftermath of the July 2009 incidents have included but have not been limited to: mass and arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances of Uighurs … arbitrary sentencing of Uighurs to death … and arbitrary executions."
According to state media, 25 people have been sentenced to death because of their involvement in the riots.
Over the years, violence in the region has flared up several times, including two attacks during the 2008 Beijing Olympics that killed a total of 27 people. In June, authorities arrested 10 alleged terrorist operatives said to be planning attacks in three cities in the province, including Aksu and Kashgar.
Beijing often blames such violence on separatists acting to bring independence to Xinjiang under the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM.
The government and experts claim the group has a couple of hundred members who work out of the tribal regions of Pakistan and have operatives throughout Xinjiang. Some say the group has support from Al Qaeda. The Chinese government has not been able to substantiate these claims.
Thursday's attack is the first major disturbance since the riots of last summer. The July anniversary passed peacefully.
Speaking at a news conference Thursday, before the attack was reported, Xinjiang Gov. Nur Bekri said the government would be battling separatist forces in Xinjiang for a long time.
"I believe we face a long and fierce and very complicated struggle," he said. "Separatism in Xinjiang has a very long history — it was there in the past, it is still here now, and it will continue in the future."
Kuo is with The Times' Beijing bureau. Tommy Yang of the bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times
A man detonates an explosives-packed electric trike in Xingjiang.
Government officials insist the region, where bloody ethnic protests left 200 dead last summer, is stable.
Reporting from Beijing —
A man drove an electric tricycle packed with explosives into a crowd in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang on Thursday. The blast, at the site of last summer's massive ethnic riots, killed seven people and injured 14 others.
Xinjiang government spokeswoman Hou Hanmin said a man was apprehended at the site of the explosion, which occurred outside the city of Aksu in the southwestern part of the province, near China's border with Kyrgyzstan.
The suspect and victims were all Uighur, a Turkic-speaking minority native to the region. The local government declared martial law and deployed large numbers of police, according to reports.
"It was an intentional act because the suspect was carrying explosive devices," Hou said Thursday at a news conference in Urumqi, the regional capital. But, he said, officials were still investigating the case. It was being treated as a criminal investigation, he said, but it was too early to say whether it was an act of terrorism.
Thursday's incident came just after the one-year anniversary of one of the country's worst instances of ethnic violence, when protests in Urumqi in July 2009 turned bloody and left 200 people dead and thousands others wounded. Officials labeled Thursday's bombing an unfortunate but insignificant incident and said, "overall," the situation in Xinjiang was stable.
"Xinjiang's development will not be affected by a small group of bad people," Hou said. "The overall situation in Xinjiang is good."
Some observers, however, said the attack was an ominous sign of a renewed campaign of violence by separatists.
The attack took place in a remote but resource-rich province of China closer to Central Asia than to Beijing. The Uighur Muslims have long resented the tight grip the Chinese government has on the region, which began in the 1990s after the region had enjoyed decades of autonomy.
As a result of government efforts to bring the country under one rule and develop its western regions, Han Chinese, the ethnic group that makes up almost 80% of China's population, have migrated to the region en masse.
Beijing has tried to appeal to the local Uighurs, who have voiced frustration over the influx of Han Chinese migrants, loss of jobs and what they say is the repression of their religion and culture. The Chinese government has launched large-scale campaigns in education and economic development.
Uighur rights activists say that what Chinese authorities have done is carry out "systemic oppression" of the Uighurs.
"After the Urumqi riots, there were still signs of resentment," said Rohan Gunaratna, an expert on terrorism and the author of "Inside Al Qaeda: Global Network of Terror."
On July 5, the anniversary of last summer's riots, the World Uighur Congress posted a statement saying, "The human rights violations that the Chinese authorities have perpetrated against the Uighurs in the aftermath of the July 2009 incidents have included but have not been limited to: mass and arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances of Uighurs … arbitrary sentencing of Uighurs to death … and arbitrary executions."
According to state media, 25 people have been sentenced to death because of their involvement in the riots.
Over the years, violence in the region has flared up several times, including two attacks during the 2008 Beijing Olympics that killed a total of 27 people. In June, authorities arrested 10 alleged terrorist operatives said to be planning attacks in three cities in the province, including Aksu and Kashgar.
Beijing often blames such violence on separatists acting to bring independence to Xinjiang under the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM.
The government and experts claim the group has a couple of hundred members who work out of the tribal regions of Pakistan and have operatives throughout Xinjiang. Some say the group has support from Al Qaeda. The Chinese government has not been able to substantiate these claims.
Thursday's attack is the first major disturbance since the riots of last summer. The July anniversary passed peacefully.
Speaking at a news conference Thursday, before the attack was reported, Xinjiang Gov. Nur Bekri said the government would be battling separatist forces in Xinjiang for a long time.
"I believe we face a long and fierce and very complicated struggle," he said. "Separatism in Xinjiang has a very long history — it was there in the past, it is still here now, and it will continue in the future."
Kuo is with The Times' Beijing bureau. Tommy Yang of the bureau contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times
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