- Title: CHINA: Uighurs complain of checks, suspicion after China station attack
- Date: 3rd March 2014
- Summary: KUNMING, YUNNAN PROVINCE, CHINA (MARCH 3, 2014) (REUTERS) SWAT POLICE STANDING OUTSIDE VANS IN AREA POPULATED BY MANY UIGHURS OFFICER STANDING AND HOLDING GUN SIGN READING 'POLICE' ON SIDE OF VAN CAR DRIVING PAST OFFICER HOLDING GUN SIGN READING "HALAL" ON FRONT OF MUSLIM RESTAURANT EXTERIOR OF RESTAURANT SIGN ON RESTAURANT INTERIOR OF RESTAURANT TWO UIGHUR MEN SEATED TWO
- Embargoed: 18th March 2014 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: China
- Country: China
- Topics: Crime
- Reuters ID: LVA95P1GSUFJ1DXT95PGSAOZQJ0U
- Story Text: Security remained tight on Monday (March 3) in an area populated by many ethnic Uighur people in the southwestern city of Kunming after authorities blamed a violent attack on the city's train station on Uighur "terrorists".
Riot police holding rifles piled out of two large vans on the main road of a suburban area known as Dashuyin Village.
There has been no obvious backlash against Uighurs following the attack which killed at least 29 and left over 130 injured on Saturday (March 1).
But Uighur residents said that on Saturday night and Sunday (March 2) morning, police launched a sweep of homes in the area, knocking on doors with guns, taking down details and rounding up dozens for questioning.
"I alone have already been checked three times. The police point their guns at us. What can we do? We don't know what really happened either. We feel very unsafe ourselves," said a Uighur restaurant worker Aniwar Wuppur.
Aniwar said he was evicted from his lodgings after the attack, and was now sleeping at the restaurant.
The Uighurs are a turkic, predominantly Muslim people who hail from the far-western, desert region of Xinjiang.
Some chafe at what they call restrictions on their culture and religion, and resent an influx of ethnically Han migrants to the area.
China blamed the attack at the train station, in which a group of people slashed passers-by with long knives, on Uighur "seperatists" seeking independence for Xinjiang.
Tensions between Uighurs and Han have run high in the past in Xinjiang, which has seen a series of violent attacks in recent years, and Saturday's attack has increased distrust in Kunming.
Wang Jing, a Han Chinese woman who owns a sewing shop near the Uighur restaurant, said she wanted all the Uighurs sent back to Xinjiang.
"They do such hateful things, they should all be taken away. Even if you're supposed to eliminate suspicion at that sort of thing, they should just send them all back, and not let them come to Kunming any more. They're hateful. Even their small children steal things and fight, and the adults are even worse. They're really terrible," she said.
But many Han Chinese, like 25-year-old saleswoman Da Limei, said the attackers didn't represent other Uighurs.
"I heard on the news that a lot of Xinjiang people have been turned away from places to stay. I think for that to happen in this day and age is unnecessary. Everyone wants peace, unity and stability. In the end, the attack was the work of a small number of people, people shouldn't reject them all," she said.
China vowed those responsible would be brought to justice.
"For those gravely violent terrorists, no matter who they are, which group they belong to, to whom they are connected, whenever or wherever they carry out attacks, the Chinese government will crack them down according to law," Foreign Ministry's spokesman Qin Gang told a regular news conference in Beijing on Monday.
The attack marked a major escalation in unrest that has centred on Xinjiang.
It was the first time people from Xinjiang have been blamed for carrying out such a large-scale attack so far from their homeland, and follows a smaller incident in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in October that shook the Communist Party leadership. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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