tiger111

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article6677379.ece



Search for Han Chinese sister whose family were butchered by Uighurs

The family grocery shop yesterday. The bodies of the family were left to burn by the mob
Jane Macartney in Urumqi
What was once a grocery shop is now a blackened mess. Two boys in shorts and singlets play in the rubble but the usual occupants are absent. Five days ago a Han Chinese family was butchered in this small shop — victims of the Uighurs who rampaged through Urumqi.

Yu Dongzhi described how he clawed through the smoking ruins of the store to search for the family who lived there. He hoped to find his sister, Yu Xinli; her husband, Zhang Mingying; their 13-year-old son; her elderly mother-in-law; and a nephew aged 27.

The police helped him to dig among sacks of flour and bottles of rice wine melted by the heat of the blaze.

He found no survivors, only four bodies. He has yet to discover the fate of his sister.

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Mr Yu is a heavily built man in his fifties and more than 6ft, but he almost weeps with despair. “I just hope I can find my sister in an intensive care unit of one of the hospitals. But so far, nothing.”

He has checked the mortuaries and photo galleries of unclaimed bodies held by the police, but his sister was not among them.

He has been refused access to the intensive care units. “I don’t say that I want to go in to disturb these very sick people, but why can’t they show us photographs of the injured? At least then I could find my sister,” he said.

Mr Yu cannot bear to think that she may have been dragged away by the rioters and murdered.

Just coping with the deaths of his sister’s family has almost overwhelmed him. The bodies were among the corpses whose pictures have been carried in local newspapers. So shocking was the family tragedy that one newspaper carried a special report on it, Police have confirmed the killings.

As The Times stood outside what is left of No 447 Zhongwan Street, a Han neighbour approached. She had watched the killings from her home in an apartment block overlooking the store.

“We saw hundreds of Uighurs running down the street on the afternoon of July 5. About ten suddenly rushed into the store. They began to hit the people inside, even the old mother, with bricks and stones. They tried to run outside. Then they were dragged back inside.

“There were terrible screams. Just wordless screams. But then very quickly they fell silent.”

She said that the son tried to hide in a chicken coop but was dragged out and his head was cut off. All the victims were left to burn inside the building. The corpses of the boy and his father were found beheaded. Mr Yu said: “Even the 84-year-old mother was stoned and then burnt. It was terrible, terrible. So cruel.”

Mr Yu made his way yesterday to a temporary emergency centre in an Urumqi hotel. At some desks clerks helped Han and Uighurs to process requests for compensation for damaged cars or destroyed businesses.

In a corner, two women waited at a desk for families seeking missing loved ones or reporting the deaths of relatives. This was where Mr Yu hoped to find help in the hunt for his sister. Officials were unable to explain what he could do next.

He sat in the hotel room-turned-office surrounded by relatives, just waiting. “I still have to keep up my hopes,” he said.

Mr Yu is too busy looking for his sister to organise the funerals for her family. That painful task will come next.

More than a decade ago his brother-in-law moved from central Henan province to run a successful business in a district with a high proportion of ethnic Uighur residents. “Perhaps they were jealous of his success. They clearly targeted the family. It looked as if they had decided in advance to pick on my sister. The police are pursuing the case and they have made some arrests,” said Mr Yu.

Nearby, a Uighur family run a small restaurant. The man shrugged when asked about the family who only a week ago ran a thriving business. He refused to talk about his late Han neighbours.

tiger111

I just read about Turkey's PM reaction about this event . I think this is too early for a state leader to jump into conclusions. I doubt anyone has the facts except those who had to live through the whole ordeal.
Where was Turkey when Uighers detainees in Cuba were looking for a home?
Luis, Los Angeles, USA

go back to a few thousand years ago, Han Chinese were there before any "Weegars"; killing civilians to achieve a political goal is terrorism. I would wonder there is any difference between killing arbitrary innocent people working in a shop and killing people working in a tall twin building?
David, Victoria, Australia

Hey George, how do you know they are disenfranchised? Every Chinese know they have more rights than Han Chinese, and not all of them are hated, the whole country hated Unighurs only when they commit criminals.
Ray, Auckland, New Zealand
The Hispanics will be the majority in this land in the very near future.How can we let this happen? This is OUR land! Should we do as the Uighers did in China?

What should the native American do to us? We are living in THEIR land! Have you visited any Indian reservations?
Allen Kent, Jacksonville, USA

Chinese media is playing down this side of the story to protect
uighur chinese. This kind of stories will never shown on any chinese language media.
JK, MD, USA

This is just disgusting. I cannot believe there are these pseudo-liberal human-right defenders here who are actually "apologizing" for Uighur barbarity. Talk about "peaceful protest" indeed. I am amazed by how people will twist everything to fit their own worldview, despite the facts. Amazing!
mike, milton, USA

Let's take a look at this side (a Uighers friend):The almighty Allah gave the black gold to all Muslims. The Han Chinese discovered huge reserves of oil in our land. We could have been as rich as our Saudi brothers if we let the Americans drill. We would have lived rich lives w/o doing anything. But
Allen Kent, Jacksonville, USA

it is definitely terrorism, no matter what your reason is. No government can tolerant such brutality.
These men should be beheaded also.
Sean, L.A., USA

Well George, I don't think that burning a family alive should ever be considered as fundamentally right.
Alex, Regina, Saskatchewan

Those horrendous acts are comparable of the afghan's 9-11 acts. The Afghans are envious of US just like the Uighurs to the Hans, manipulating minds disguised their own enviousness with so called "unfair" treatment to justified their excuse for the killing of innocent people
john, Hanburg, Germany

Time to fight back I think. The Chinese have suffered this before, at the hands of the Imperial Japanese during WW2.
Jeff, London,

thank you for telling the true story, in a world full of hatred and lies. i am all in tears, and sick of so many media calling it 'peaceful protest'
jacob, windsor,

The western media are more objective in reporting the riot this time. They usually only report the negative news about the Chinese gov't. They show sympathy this time.
Sadly, many westerners still find justification for those who committed murder.
For any reason, do you think 911 is justified?
Steven, San Francisco, US

I can't suppress my tears when I read the news. I can't breathe and my heart is full of pain. I have wife, young sons and monther just like the victims. Just can't imagine the despair and the hellish mob! Where are the Koran and the Muslim God!? Uighurs are babarians.
Harry, TheWoodlands, USA

The Uighur riots have gone too far, certainly, but that doesn't mean the Uighurs aren't fundamentally in the right. Their land was stolen by a greedy Han government, and now they are disenfranchised in their homeland and hated throughout the rest of the country. They are the victims here.
George, Bay Area, USA

This is the first report in the western media which reports the facts which are of critical significance to understading the whole riot event. Thanks for your braveness.
Victor, Hamilton, Cananda

Maybe Chinese government hasn’t been the best for respecting people’s religious needs, but Chinese culture is a very tolerate culture towards relgion, noramlly there’s no hatered based on different religious believes.
george, Swindon,
@Shawn, San Francisco, US

while bits of your comment does are relevant, however the fact remains that the fundamentals of ur beliefs are based on unfactual claims. The land was orginally claimed by the han's occupasion of the silk road in 200BC the 'weegers' was moved there in 1900CE
Eddie, Sydney, Australia

This is a terribly sad part of a terribly sad-and complicated-story.
No one can deny the barbarity of the murder of people in Xinjiang-whether Uighur or Han. But, people, look: The Uighurs rioted FOR A REASON. Accepting that there is a reason is not tantamount to apologizing for their deeds.
joey joe joe, San Francisco, USA

"This is colonialist, this is wrong." Then what is the Manifest Destiny? I don't hear you crying about how we should give the land back to the Native Americans. I guess it is easier to stick your nose into other people's business huh?
Rob, Salt Lake City, USA

This is a response to Gene Daniels.
I bet you are Muslim. Muslims have sympathy for Muslims no matter what they do. Like they way they oppress Non-Muslim minority in Muslim dominated countries and the mainstream won't say a word about it. They would not see the radicals to harass, kidnap, and kill.
Steven, San Francisco, United States
To Shawn from San Francisco, US

Even if there are not a single ethnic Han Chinese, Uighur is a minority group in Xinjiang. There are 16 ethnic groups in Xinjiang region, and although they constitute a larger percentage than most, they are nevertheless a minority group with or without Han Chinese.
xsu, Madison, US

Whatever wrongs the Chinese Government may have done to to the Uighers can't justify such heinous deeds. No one has the right to let their anger run so wild that they commit acts senseless, indiscriminate brutality. No country in the world would tolerate this sort of thing.
*****, New York, USA

I find it amazing that the only violence was by Uighurs against Han Chinese. Come on people, haven't you even seen propaganda before? I have been around inter ethnic violence before and it always goes both ways. Don't you see that the Chinese gov. is trying to paint all Uighurs dirty!?
Gene Daniels, Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

It is such a tragic story that even reading it filled my heart with sorrow. I can't understand, to the best of my knowledge, how can any human be as brutal as these Uyghurs?
Tom, Houston, USA

Communist china needs to stamp out this islamic uprising now before it spreads and destroys the chinese culture just as it destroying european culture.
dave, nottingham, england
Being discriminated or not, no one has the right of running around and killing innocent children/elders, not to mention cutting their heads off.
It's wrong. It's terrorism. Whoever does this is a terrorist.
Liz, NYC,

Murder of innocent people simply unjustifable and untolerable. Such crimes undermine any otherwise justifiable cause of Uighur movement. Thurst for blood never brings good to any society rather it depicts a darker side of the decayed society.
Movement for rights can be done peacefully.
Dhiman , San Jose, USA
That may be mark from toronto but the ability to kill others because you feel unfairly treated separates the us from the them. You are missing the point. You lose all human sympathy from me when you kill innocents to make your political point.
Truth, USA,
I am not surprised in the pattern of brute crime in name of historic retaliation. Belonging to majority community in India has been pain, as invariable people will sympathesize with minorities. But the day is coming when India will be Muslim and Pakistan-India-Bangladesh will be reunited, God Bless!
A, Toronto, Canada
Definition of TERRORISM: the intentional use or threat to use violence against civilians and non-combatants "in order to achieve political goals".

If no political goals behind, it should simply be crime or murder.
josh, San Fran, USA
Nan in Victoria I say you are wrong. There is ALWAYS a right side and a wrong side. Those who kill and murder human beings are wrong. It is as simple as that. You can say they have been oppressed, and I do not doubt it. You still do not get the right to murder. The uighurs are now just as guilty.
Truth, USA,
Uighurs' leader Ms Rebiya Kadeer set a good example of China's "discrimination" against the Uighurs:
She had 11 children, which confirms that Uighurs were not subject to China's One Child Policy. She run a successfule business. As a senior member of National Congress of China, she was a lawmaker.
David, Hartford,
Basically, this was done by Uighurs terrosist who were trained
in Afriganistan. Remerber that American troops caught 17 of
them but the court found that they haven't done anything wrong and should be released. Now we know what they have done and will do.

Sean Canada
sean, ottawa, canada
"There are no sides."

What sheep.

May the Chinese hunt these people down and kill them. I won't say "like animals" as animals lack free will, and are therefore less culpable than these barbarians.
John Satclaire, New York,
Resentment can lead to hatred, which destroys the heart and mind and is highly addictive. Hatred makes a human being insane, makes a person act insanely. Hatred is a drug. This is why people must have a way to speak their minds--fearlessly. Oppression causes hatred/insanity/violence.
Meri O, WestfieldUSA,
The Chinese Media highlights scenes in which the Han were victims of attacks by Uighurs in order to unify the Han population in a time of economic downturn. The fact is that most of those killed are Uighurs who were protesting decades of discrimination by the central government and its cronies.
Sam Attal, Ada, MI, USA
Unfortunately, this is the direct consequence of identifying the self as the body, which then leads to division and thinking of others as on opposing teams. Whether the body is "black" or "brown" or "pink", "female" or male," old or young, mongolian or african, hindu or jain, it makes no difference:
Mark, Toronto, Canada
Yes, Jimmy from SF, even Al Qaeda terrorists have their say to justify their "cause". I hope you could be as cool and show similar sympathy to listen to those Islamic extremists' claims when it comes to 9/11 targeting at American civilians. This is pure DOUBLE STANDARDS.
k, Princeton, U.S.
Lets hope both sides can learn from this horror and realize that violence is not the way to go. Prehaps this could lead to a better understanding between the Hans and the Uighurs.
Such a sad sad state the world is in.

Siguy, Vancouver, Canada
This can become the Palestine of China if the communist govt do not manage this with impartiality. The rule of law must prevail whether for Hans or Uighers otherwise the Uighers will take matters into their own hands and may evolve to become the Taliban of China.
hanzi, union city, usa
To: Jimmy, San Francisco, CA, USA
do you have any prove to support your point? about discrimination against those minorities? I am a chinese had lived in China for 25 years, and the fact is just the opposite, those minorities enjoy a lot of benefit that han chinese can not have. Please go to china.
harry, ottawa, canada
It's interesting to see one of the comment that says that he can determine the cause of these brutal killings. Can we say, justified or not, the cause of 911 was due to decades of merican's failed middle east policy that caused Muslims misery and discrimination.
Peter Lee, chicago, usa
I don't care what the cause, no one should be murdered so cruelly. Until now, I felt for the Uighur cause, sympathized with them. Now, however, after reading this horrific story, and the senseless, terrible murder committed by this mob, I'm not so sure anymore.
Joseph, S.C., USA
Some of the posters here seem to be looking for a right side and a wrong side. They are missing the point. There is no vindication here, only stupidity and cruelty and death. There are no sides. And there is no sign anywhere of any lesson learned.

Nan, Victoria,
Time for us all to examine the history of Islam . We should know what we are bequeathing future generations in the western world.
wilma, Brisbane, Australia
One needs ask why non of the Uyghurs were willing to speak to reporters and everyone interviewed were Han Chinese. Any Uyghur who speaks out will face the consequence, only the Han can speak freely and tell their side of their story. As for the Uyghurs, they continue to suffer queitely as ever.
untifacsist, beijing,
the only true story from western media!
Chao, College Station, USA
I can understand that people have hatred in their heart but not why they can be so cruel to a fellow human being. They have lashed out like animals. No one should ever be treated like this. It is so worng. L.iz U.K
Liz Timmer, Horsham, U.K
As is the case in nearby Tibet, the government of China is shipping in huge numbers of Han Chinese into these areas in a coordinated attempt to push the Uighurs into a minority status in their own land using the guise of development. This is colonialist, this is wrong.
Shawn, San Francisco, US
"In a moral sense", funny, could you please, Jimmy from SF, tell me in what sense it can be justified?
Francis, New York, US
This is a more human report than most other Western news, which have politicized everything about China. Kudos to you
Greg, Sugar Land,
My hearts go out to the innocent people who died in this riot. It's really sad and horrifying to read about the boy, beheaded.
Liz, NYC,
Finally a report in the Western media that describes the brutality of the Uighur mob. Be strong China!
johnny, Dublin, Ireland
Thank you for the first true report about human beings lost during the riots. Everyone should condemn the brutal killings.
DH, OH, USA
Of course nothing can justify these killings in a moral sense, but that doesn't mean we can't determine a cause. Decades of ethnic discrimination tends to produce these kind of blind riots - justified or not, the Chinese must address the factual cause to prevent more anger.
Jimmy, San Francisco, CA, USA
you sure that is the truth?
I insist it is "peaceful protest" and the communist chinese government committed "ethnic genocide"
michael, salt lake city, USA
thank you for this article. timesonline is one of the very few unbiased western media. all the other western media failed to mention that chinese hans were the biggest victims in this riot and instead twist the truth
fili, London, UK
I insist this is "peaceful protest".
WL, Baltimore, US
humans beings can be the most vicious, unreasonable creatures on earth. Sad for everyone involved.
R.Divekar, Ustown, USA
Wow, finally, English newspaper gave some light on Han Chinese victims after all eyesights shifted somewhere else. Hurray! The uighur protest was really really "peaceful" and Chinese Authority had "no" right to crack down such a "peaceful" 'nonviolent' protest.
Francis, New York, US
These crimes are what some western media have described as "peaceful protests"... Imagine what if this should happen in U.S., Britain, or any other country, no doubt it would be called a "terrorist attack".
karl, Princeton, U.S.
so sad. nothing can justify these killings. can't imagine how human can be so brutal.
w, Canada,