Beijing sets its sights on stability in oil region

CHINA'S President Hu Jintao, forced to abandon the G8 summit in Italy because of ethnic violence in Xinjiang, has said that maintaining social stability in the energy-rich region was the "most urgent task."

Hu described Sunday's riots in the regional capital Urumqi, where 156 people were killed and 1,080 wounded, as a "serious violent crime elaborately planned and organised by 'three forces' at home and abroad", an apparent reference to religious extremists, separatists and terrorists. Hu did not blame any overseas group directly, but government officials and state media have accused US-exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer and her followers abroad of being behind the violence. She has denied the allegations.

Hu, who doubles as Communist Party chief, told the decision-making Politburo that local authorities should "isolate and deal a blow to the small group" of rioters and to "unite and educate the majority" of Uighurs.

Beijing cannot afford to lose its grip on Xinjiang, a vast desert territory that borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China's largest natural gas-producing region.

Han Chinese, who have said they feel threatened after Sunday's violence, cheered yesterday's show of military might as the trucks rolled into the city, while Uighur residents appeared apprehensive.

"This makes me scared and I think it's meant to," said a Uighur woman called Adila. "What can we do against so many soldiers?"

Authorities have posted notices in Urumqi – which has a population of 2.3 million – urging rioters to turn themselves in or face stern punishment. Li Zhi, Communist Party boss of Urumqi, said he would seek the death penalty for rioters who resorted to murder in a city divided between Uighurs and Han, the country's predominant ethnic group.

Those who gave themselves in would be treated more leniently or even avoid punishment, the notices said. Anyone who provided evidence or turned in suspects would be rewarded and protected by the police, they said, providing a hotline.

The notices, posted on walls in the Chinese and Uighur languages, say that those who hide or protect "criminals" will be punished. The death penalty is common in China, even for economic crimes.

People must not use mobile phones or the internet to "create and spread rumours, to link up with others, incite trouble, or disturb the social order", one notice added.

It is unclear whether mosques would open in Urumqi today, the Muslim day of prayer.

"People coming to worship must all go home to do it. Thank you for your cooperation," said a notice on the front door of the Qinghai mosque in Tianshan district. Muslims gathered at the mosque said they would be disappointed, even angry, if they were not allowed to pray there.

"We still don't know whether we'll be able to pray tomorrow," said Bai Ping, a Han convert to Islam. "They are afraid of trouble inside the mosque."

The line of troops, armoured vehicles and trucks measuring several miles and blasting out the propaganda passed for about 25 minutes through Saimachang, the Uighur neighbourhood where hundreds of women protested on Tuesday.

Helicopters flying only a few metres above rooftops scattered propaganda leaflets, urging ethnic unity, over the crowd of hundreds who gathered to watch the security forces march by.

'MOTHER OF THE UIGHURS' FIGHTS FOR HER PEOPLE

AS THE global face of resistance to what she calls the worsening Chinese repression of the Uighurs, Rebiya Kadeer, 62, has a sense of destiny that drove her improbable climb from laundry girl to business mogul.

The Beijing government that hailed her as a model citizen in the 1990s, before imprisoning her for stealing state secrets and sending her into exile in the United States in 2005, vilifies her as the unseen hand behind the latest protests.

"All the difficulties in my life prepared me for the tough times we face now," said the woman happy to be called the "Mother of the Uighurs".

Starting out selling goods from a sack at the side of the road, then buying and selling thousands of sheepskins or logs as China's economy opened up in the 1980s, she expanded into property and flourished. By the 1990s, she ran trading companies all over central Asia.

In the mid-1990s, as Chinese officials hailed her as an example of ethnic success and even made her a member of the national legislature, she tried to work for change and never lost sight of her political dream. But she started speaking out about Uighur problems and kept ties with her husband, by then a dissident living in the US. In 1999, she was imprisoned.

Ms Kadeer denies planning last Sunday's protests. She is more than happy, however, to tell how she and the two organisations she heads, the Uighur American Association and the World Uighur Congress, are fighting for her people.

"Instead of blaming me, the Chinese government should start listening to the complaints of the Uighur people and choose dialogue," she said.