Urumqi, July 13: The centre of the riot-hit city of Urumqi was tense but calm on Sunday, one week after ethnic fighting began that left 184 people dead and alarmed China’s communist leaders.
Armed paramilitary police were on guard in People’s Square, the site of the June 5 protest by minority Uighurs that escalated into deadly attacks on Han Chinese, including people who were pulled off buses and beaten. More than 1,000 were hurt in the violence.
The government says most of the dead were from the Han Chinese majority, but the largely Muslim Uighurs suspect that many more of their people died.
The official Xinhua News Agency has cited provincial officials as saying 137 victims were Han while 46 were Uighurs and one was a Hui, another Muslim group.
The Urumqi Public Security Bureau published a notice late Saturday banning illegal assembly, marches and demonstrations in the western city.
The notice said the situation was “basically under control” but that there was “still sporadic illegal assemblies and demonstrations in some places,” Xinhua reported.
Some roads to the main market were still closed on Sunday, and the market remained guarded by armed military police. An officer was teaching them simple greetings in the Uighur language.
Officials have yet to make public key details about the riots and what happened next, including how much force police used to re-impose order. Officials and Xinhua have not said whether all the victims were killed on Sunday or in later days, when vigilante mobs ran through the city with bricks, clubs and cleavers.
The violence broke out following a protest against the June 26 deaths of Uighur factory workers in a brawl in southern China. The crowd then scattered throughout Urumqi, attacking Han Chinese, burning cars and smashing windows.
-Agencies