Scores of protesters smashed shops owned by Uighurs, a Turkic largely Islamic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia. -- PHOTO: AP
URUMQI (China) - THOUSANDS of Han Chinese protesters armed with makeshift weapons marched through China's Urumqi city on Tuesday vowing revenge after ethnic unrest claimed 156 lives, an AFP reporter witnessed.
HUMAN rights groups have warned that a harsh crackdown on Uighurs in the wake of Sunday's violence could merely exacerbate the grievances that fuelled ethnic tensions.
Urumqi Communist Party boss Li Zhi defended the crackdown.
The crowd, estimated by the AFP journalist to be at least 10,000-strong, converged on central Urumqi with many carrying poles, chains, machetes and bats. Police fired tear gas repeatedly at the protesters but they refused to disperse, according to the AFP reporter.
Police were blocking them from getting through to an area of Urumqi populated by Muslim Uighurs, who authorities have blamed for riots on Sunday that left 156 people dead and more than 1,000 injured.
'The Uighurs came to our area to smash things, now we are going to their area to beat them,' one protester, who was carrying a metal pipe, told AFP.
Some of the Han Chinese protesters were carrying national flags, while many were chanting 'safeguard the people' and 'unity', in reference to national unity. Scores of protesters smashed shops owned by Uighurs, a Turkic largely Islamic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia.
Uighurs protesting against the arrest of relatives also clashed with police. Many were women, wailing and waving the identity cards of husbands, brothers or sons they say were arbitrarily seized in a sweeping reaction to Sunday's rioting in the city of Urumqi.
The state-run Xinhua news agency indicated there were similar scenes in other parts of Urumqi, which is the capital of China's remote north-west Xinjiang region.
'Chaos was seen in a number of places in Urumqi on Tuesday afternoon,' the official Xinhua news agency reported.
The Xinjiang region has long experienced simmering ethnic tensions, with the eight million Uighurs complaining about the influx of Han Chinese into what they regard as their homeland, as well as political and cultural repression.
Before the rallies started, Mr Shao Yi, 19, was shopping in a supermarket when security staff told everyone to evacuate because of the imminent danger. 'I just ran as fast as I could from the second floor to get out,' Mr Shao said. 'The electricity went out and everything went black, it was really scary.' -- AFP, AP
