Wednesday 3 February 2010

Uygur’s death highlights wider tensions

Tight security has been kept for three weeks in a Shenzhen neighbourhood where a Han man stabbed a Uygur to death last month, with at least two police officers conducting round-the-clock surveillance amid fears of further ethnic violence.

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Uygur’s death highlights wider tensions

Fiona Tam
01 February 2010

Tight security has been kept for three weeks in a Shenzhen neighbourhood where a Han man stabbed a Uygur to death last month, with at least two police officers conducting round-the-clock surveillance amid fears of further ethnic violence.

On January 6, a 25-year-old Uygur restaurant worker, surnamed Tursun, was stabbed by a Han diner at the Silu Xinjiang Barbecue Restaurant in Futian district during a brawl.

Seven Han men who were present during the stabbing were arrested hours later and remain in custody.

A police officer said the authorities had given more than 600,000 yuan (HK$681,000) in compensation to Tursun’s family in a bid to prevent the stabbing from triggering wider ethnic unrest.

Last summer, an ethnic clash at a Guangdong factory sparked the bloodiest riots in Xinjiang in decades.

He said the “unprecedented” payout was triple usual government practice.

“Usually, it’s suspects’ civil responsibility to pay the compensation. But the seven - all security guards - can’t afford the amount,” the officer said. “The indemnification is very high when compared with the five Hong Kong people who were killed in a nightclub fire with 39 others in 2008. Their families only received 250,000 yuan compensation each.”

He said the government had also rented hotel rooms for Tursun’s family for a week while they organised his funeral in Shenzhen.

The average annual income in Xinjiang was about 25,000 yuan last year.

Abdurahman, the restaurant’s Uygur owner, said he would reopen the restaurant this week after police vowed to strengthen security outside.

The authorities chopped down trees to install surveillance cameras and deployed officers to patrol the neighbourhood a day after the stabbing.

Abdurahman, who had planned to close his business and return to Kashgar because of worsening tensions after the Urumqi riots, said the barbeque stand was the family’s only livelihood.

“It’s a traumatising experience and I was nearly killed by the Han men who injured my forehead and chest,” he said. “The other two Uygur waiters quit because they felt unsafe, and my brother brought another two workers from Kashgar last week.”

He estimated the restaurant, which used to be a popular eatery in the neighbourhood, had lost 50,000 to 60,000 yuan during the closure.

The case again highlighted tensions between the Han and Uygur ethnic groups, which remain high almost six months after last year’s violence in Urumqi.

Nearby shopkeepers, who are all Han, said people had become more cautious about forming friendships with Uygurs.

“Experience has prejudiced many Han Chinese against Uygurs,” a newsstand owner outside the restaurant said. “Many believe Uygurs are combative and ferocious because police are too sympathetic towards them. They are always given light punishment as it’s a national policy to give fringe benefits to Uygurs in exchange for their independence.

“Han Chinese will be placed in an untenable situation if they become involved in a brawl with Uygurs.”

In June, a fight between Uygur and Han workers at a factory in Shaoguan left two Uygur workers dead and 118 injured. It was a trigger for rioting the following month in Urumqi by the two ethnic groups that left almost 200 people dead.