Syringe attack victims worried about long-term health risks
Agence France-Presse in Urumqi 05 September 2009
Jiang Ye was waiting for a friend at the train station in Urumqi when she felt a sharp stabbing pain in her left arm.
Jiang, 36, is one of more than 450 people whom authorities say were attacked in recent weeks with syringes in the restive capital of Xinjiang region.
The mysterious assaults, which continued yesterday, sparked mass protests on Thursday, reviving ethnic tension in the already uneasy city.
Tens of thousands of people, most of them Han Chinese, had filled the streets to demand the government do more to ensure public safety. More than 1,000 people protested yesterday before being dispersed by police.
Jiang, who spoke as she left the infectious diseases department of the Xinjiang People’s Hospital, said she was not afraid to go out in public since the incident, but remained concerned about her health.
“It happened the day before yesterday at the train station. I was picking someone up at the train and he was coming out with a crowd of other people when suddenly I felt this sharp stabbing pain in my arm,” said Jiang, who is Han.
“I didn’t see who did it. It was raining really hard and the sky was dark, but I do recall that there were some Uygurs right near me at that point.”
She rolled up the left sleeve of her blouse to reveal a bruise the size of a coin with a pinprick hole at the centre.
“I’m very worried now - the hospital says there should be no problem, but they also said that with some diseases you won’t know for six months or a year whether you have it.”
Her husband, He Zeyong, 41, said he joined Thursday’s protests “out of anger” over what happened to his wife.
“I thought I was going to die of fright,” he said of first hearing of the attack.
“The government is actively taking measures now to ensure security so we are confident. We just want things to be peaceful and safe here,” said He, who runs a small grocery store with his wife.
State media has said 476 people have sought treatment after being stabbed, adding that Uygurs were among the victims. But the official reports have been vague about the identities of the perpetrators.
Ahmatjan, 52, a Uygur who works in administration at Xinjiang University, said he was stabbed with a needle in the back on Thursday while returning home from work.
“It was a young Uyghur man in his teens. It still hurts,” he said, while filling out an incident report at a police station yesterday.
No one had been infected or poisoned in the assaults, Xinhua reported, and it remained unclear what the syringes contained, if anything.
Hospital staff told Ahmatjan that there appeared to have been nothing in the syringe, but that did not ease the fears of his wife, Reyihan.
“They said there is probably no problem now and that we can just treat it if a problem emerges later. But what if it is a serious problem? He is already in his 50s and won’t be able to fight disease as well in the future,” she said.
“These people will attack anyone, even their own Uygurs, just to create chaos in society. But they won’t accomplish anything.”
Several victims said they believed syringes were being used because a security crackdown since the July unrest had made it much more difficult to possess larger weapons without detection.
Liu Yan, 21, and a Han, said she was stabbed in the left hand outside a convenience store at the Xinjiang People’s Hospital, where she works.
“He was really tall, he was a Uyghur for sure. But before I could get a good look at him he ran off,” she said.
“Security said he got away. I can’t believe something like this could happen inside the hospital compound.”
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Syringe attack victims worried about long-term health risks
Agence France-Presse in Urumqi
05 September 2009
Jiang Ye was waiting for a friend at the train station in Urumqi when she felt a sharp stabbing pain in her left arm.
Jiang, 36, is one of more than 450 people whom authorities say were attacked in recent weeks with syringes in the restive capital of Xinjiang region.
The mysterious assaults, which continued yesterday, sparked mass protests on Thursday, reviving ethnic tension in the already uneasy city.
Tens of thousands of people, most of them Han Chinese, had filled the streets to demand the government do more to ensure public safety. More than 1,000 people protested yesterday before being dispersed by police.
Jiang, who spoke as she left the infectious diseases department of the Xinjiang People’s Hospital, said she was not afraid to go out in public since the incident, but remained concerned about her health.
“It happened the day before yesterday at the train station. I was picking someone up at the train and he was coming out with a crowd of other people when suddenly I felt this sharp stabbing pain in my arm,” said Jiang, who is Han.
“I didn’t see who did it. It was raining really hard and the sky was dark, but I do recall that there were some Uygurs right near me at that point.”
She rolled up the left sleeve of her blouse to reveal a bruise the size of a coin with a pinprick hole at the centre.
“I’m very worried now - the hospital says there should be no problem, but they also said that with some diseases you won’t know for six months or a year whether you have it.”
Her husband, He Zeyong, 41, said he joined Thursday’s protests “out of anger” over what happened to his wife.
“I thought I was going to die of fright,” he said of first hearing of the attack.
“The government is actively taking measures now to ensure security so we are confident. We just want things to be peaceful and safe here,” said He, who runs a small grocery store with his wife.
State media has said 476 people have sought treatment after being stabbed, adding that Uygurs were among the victims. But the official reports have been vague about the identities of the perpetrators.
Ahmatjan, 52, a Uygur who works in administration at Xinjiang University, said he was stabbed with a needle in the back on Thursday while returning home from work.
“It was a young Uyghur man in his teens. It still hurts,” he said, while filling out an incident report at a police station yesterday.
No one had been infected or poisoned in the assaults, Xinhua reported, and it remained unclear what the syringes contained, if anything.
Hospital staff told Ahmatjan that there appeared to have been nothing in the syringe, but that did not ease the fears of his wife, Reyihan.
“They said there is probably no problem now and that we can just treat it if a problem emerges later. But what if it is a serious problem? He is already in his 50s and won’t be able to fight disease as well in the future,” she said.
“These people will attack anyone, even their own Uygurs, just to create chaos in society. But they won’t accomplish anything.”
Several victims said they believed syringes were being used because a security crackdown since the July unrest had made it much more difficult to possess larger weapons without detection.
Liu Yan, 21, and a Han, said she was stabbed in the left hand outside a convenience store at the Xinjiang People’s Hospital, where she works.
“He was really tall, he was a Uyghur for sure. But before I could get a good look at him he ran off,” she said.
“Security said he got away. I can’t believe something like this could happen inside the hospital compound.”
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