Uighurs ignore orders canceling Friday prayers
Ethnic violence claims 184 lives, China reports
URUMQI, China - Boisterous crowds turned up at mosques in riot-hit parts of this western Chinese city, ignoring orders canceling Friday prayers due to the ethnic violence that killed 184, and police quickly broke up a small protest nearby.
Nearly a week after riots by Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang province unleashed a massive security response, the US national security adviser told Chinese diplomats at the G-8 summit in Italy that President Obama expects Beijing to act with “appropriate restraint.’’
Late yesterday, officials provided the first ethnic breakdown of the deaths in the fighting. The official Xinhua News Agency reported that 137 of the victims belonged to the dominant Han Chinese ethnic group. The Han victims included 111 men and 26 women, the report said.
The rest of the deaths were 45 men and one woman who were Uighurs along with one man of the Hui ethnic group, Xinhua said, citing the information office of the regional government. The report said the total death toll rose from 156 to 184.
Earlier yesterday, about 100 men argued with guards, demanding they be let in for prayers at the White Mosque - near the Muslim Uighur neighborhood that saw some of the worst violence after angry protests Sunday spiraled into a riot.
A policeman guarding the mosque, who would not give his name, said: “We decided to open the mosque because so many people had gathered. We did not want an incident.’’
Nearby, on Liberation Road, a group of about 40 Uighur men and women began to march, shouting, crying and pumping their fists in the air as they walked.
Madina Ahtam, a woman in a multicolored headscarf, begged foreign reporters to stay with them as they walked.
“Every Uighur people are afraid,’’ she said in English. “Do you understand? We are afraid.. . . The problem? Police.’’
A group of 10 police in bulletproof vests and helmets and armed with batons and stun guns blocked their march within minutes. Shortly after, several dozen more police surrounded the group and forced them to squat on the sidewalk.
Police pushed journalists away from the area and detained at least four foreign journalists, holding them for several hours.
The government has imposed curfews and flooded the streets with security forces to avoid a repeat of the running street battles earlier in the week.
