Mosques closed in China crackdownRobert Saiget, China
July 11, 2009
Soldiers guard the Dong Kuruk Bridge mosque in Urumqi. Photo: Reuters
THE normally bustling mosques of Urumqi, in China's Xinjiang province, have been ordered to shut on the main Islamic day of prayer, Friday.
At the same time, police were out in force to prevent new outbreaks of ethnic unrest.
The region's Uighurs said they had been directed to pray at home, as armed forces saturated the streets of Xinjiang's capital five days after clashes that authorities said left 156 people dead.
"The Government said there would be no Friday prayers," said a Uighur man named Tursun.
He was outside the Hantagri mosque, one of the oldest in the capital, as about 100 policemen carrying machine guns and batons stood guard nearby.
"There's nothing we can do … the Government is afraid that people will use religion to support the three forces," he said.
A Chinese Government term, the "three forces" refers to extremism, separatism and terrorism, forces it says are trying to split the remote Xinjiang region from the rest of the country.
Xinjiang's 8 million Uighurs have long complained about religious, political and economic repression under Chinese rule.
The Government said 156 people were killed and more than 1000 injured as Uighurs attacked people from China's dominant Han ethnic group.
But Uighur exiles have said security forces overreacted to peaceful protests. They said up to 800 people may have died in the unrest.
Disturbances continued early in the week as thousands of Han took to the streets wielding knives, poles, meat cleavers and other makeshift weapons, vowing vengeance against the Uighurs.
China poured in thousands of extra police and army troops on Tuesday and the Urumqi authorities said the situation was under control the next day.
Many security forces remained in place yesterday and the traditional Islamic day of prayer passed with many Uighurs and Muslims from other ethnic groups unable to attend mosques.
"Go home to pray," said handwritten notices on the front gates of five closed mosques.
The Liu Daowan mosque in eastern Urumqi, which usually holds about 1000 people, was also closed yesterday, according to one reporter.
When asked if all mosques in Urumqi were closed yesterday, a Xinjiang regional government spokesman said that "all religious activities should go on normally", without elaborating.
China's leaders have vowed to severely punish those responsible for this week's unrest, the nation's worst ethnic conflict for decades.
"The planners of the incident, the organisers, key members and the serious violent criminals must be severely punished," President Hu Jintao and the other eight members of the ruling Communist Party's elite Politburo said.
At a regular briefing on Thursday, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said: "As for some separatist activists in China … we have evidence that shows that these people have received training abroad, including training from the al-Qaeda organisation."
China says it faces a serious terrorist threat from Muslim separatists in Xinjiang, but rights groups have accused Beijing of exaggerating the threat in order to justify tight controls in the region.
AFP
http://www.theage.com.au/world/mosques-closed-in-china-crackdown-20090710-dg00.html
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