China riots: Twitter and YouTube frustrate 'censorship attempts'

How come no ones clambering about invading China or trying to support resolutions for sanctions and alike? The were all ready and willing to run headlong into Iraq, Iran and Honduras. Did all the hawks lose their nerve at the same time suddenly?

lmfao the great firewall of china is bieng attacked by twizzle :D

china can't deft the great power of a fast moving current :D

Fear of escalation

Uyghur witnesses said the protest began when as many as 1,000 Uyghurs gathered to demand a probe into the deadly fight in Guangdong late last month.

Before the demonstrators reached the People’s Square in central Urumqi, armed police were in position and moved to disperse them, one witness said.

Police "scattered them [the protesters]," he said. "They beat them. Beat them, including girls, very, very viciously,” he said. “The police were chasing them and captured many of them. They were beaten badly."

'Electroshock weapons'

"When the demonstrators reached the People's Square, armed police suppressed them using electroshock weapons and so on," he said, adding, "after that, other protests erupted in Uyghur areas of town."

A shopowner in Urumqi who declined to give his name said he had had to close for business as police swarmed through the city.

"We closed our doors from last night. Armed police dispersed the protesters in about two hours. Firefighters were also dispatched and last night police were all over the city," he said in an interview Monday.

"Riots took place in bus stations, in tourist spots, and in shopping areas. Scores of Uyghurs were killed. Armed police were carrying automatic assault rifles and machine guns. There were thousands of soldiers. It had a tremendous impact, and we won’t be able to go to work for three days," another resident said, also speaking on condition on anonymity.

"When the protest started... I was near the Bank of China in Nanmen. There were many people. Police surrounded the areas from Döngköwrük to Nanmen," one youth said Sunday. "There were police, paramilitary. They were fully armored, and they had steel helmets, too."

"One was giving a speech in front of the bank and people were applauding him... Most of them were students," he said.

"Police circled around them, and we couldn't get inside."

Another youth said the protest began peacefully but became violent after police fired on the crowd, and protesters then attacked cars and shops. His account couldn't be independently confirmed.

City 'now calm'

A police officer contacted by telephone early Monday said a curfew had been imposed on Uyghur areas.

"People are dead. This might have planned by evil-minded people," the officer said.

Urumqi is home to 2.3 million residents, including many Uyghurs, who have chafed for years under Chinese rule. The city is located 3,270 kms (2,050 miles) west of Beijing.

Uyghur sources said the protest was organized online and began early July 5 with about 1,000 people but grew by thousands more during the day.

Online messages meanwhile called on Uyghurs in other major cities to stage protests Monday to show support for the Uyghurs who died in Shaoguan.

"We decided to hold a demonstration and stressed that it shouldn’t be violent," an organizer of Sunday's demonstration said in an interview.

Security in Urumqi is always tight, including strict controls over information. Witnesses spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity.

Exiles blamed

In a televised speech on Monday, XUAR Governor Nur Bekri explicitly blamed the clashes on Rebiya Kadeer, a former businesswoman who was jailed by Chinese authorities for subversion before she was paroled and admitted to the United States.

Kadeer now serves as leader of the Washington-based Uyghur American Association and Munich-based World Uyghur Congress, and she has been accused repeatedly of fomenting separatism among Uyghurs against the Chinese authorities.

"This riot is typical, directed from overseas but carried out inside [China], organized and premeditated," Nur Bekri said. "On July 5, Rebiya made a phone call to China to incite the riot and by 7 p.m. protests erupted in Urumqi, and in some locations there was violence."

Both Kadeer and a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, Dilshat Rashit, have rejected the charge.

The Uyghur American Association, in a statement late Sunday, cited reports that 1,000 to 3,000 protesters marched through the Döngköwrük [Erdaoqiao] area of Urumqi on Sunday, "some of whom were waving the flag of the People’s Republic of China."

Chinese authorities deployed regular police, anti-riot police, special police, and the People's Armed Police to contain them, it said, citing unnamed witnesses as saying that an unknown number of Uyghur protesters died after police fired on them.

Kadeer said the violence "could have been avoided if the Chinese authorities had properly investigated the Shaoguan killings."

In separate interviews, three Uyghur youths now under Chinese government protection said the fighting in Shaoguan began when Han Chinese laborers stormed the dormitories of Uyghur colleagues, beating them with clubs, bars, and machetes.

The clashes began late June 25 and lasted into the early hours of the following day. At least two people were killed and 118 injured, and witnesses said the numbers could be higher.

Underlying resentment

Like Tibet, which erupted in protests in early 2008, the XUAR has long been home to smoldering ethnic tensions related to religion, culture, and regional economic development that residents say has disproportionately enriched and employed majority Han Chinese immigrants.

China has accused Uyghur separatists of fomenting unrest in the region, particularly in the run-up to and during the Olympics last year, when a wave of violence hit the vast desert region.

The violence prompted a crackdown in which the government says 1,295 people were detained for state security crimes, along with tighter curbs on the practice of Islam.

XUAR Party Chief Wang Lequan was quoted in China’s official media as saying the fight against these forces was a “life or death struggle,” and he has spoken since of the need to “strike hard” against ethnic separatism.

Activists have reported wide-scale detentions, arrests, new curbs on religious practices, travel restrictions, and stepped-up controls over free expression.

The chinese have written there own history. The internet has now will be able to be used as a tool to make sure that propaganda such as the chinese create, will not happen anymore. The visual of the chinese riots are influencing to say the least. twitter and youtube are now the carriers of history.

Are these riots are more wild than the iran one?

I really hope they get through censorship....

This might not only be a start of a long protest for the Muslim Uighurs but for all of China. This censorship and just the plain mistreatment of the Uighurs should undoubtedly cause unrest among other citizens of China.

Insurgents kill many civilians, many of the bodies in hidden in the alley, if it is "peaceful demonstration", they will not kill! My home in Urumqi! The insurgents are very cruel! My friend's mother did not find that night! There are many countries, please do control their own country better! We manage our own country, is accused of other countries do not need! Why do some countries to combat terrorism, but support for the terrorist forces of other countries! They are people, other people not human beings?

Government did not abuse anyone, my home in Urumqi! ! ! Murderers should not be punished right? If they do kill your mother? You will feel that they are innocent it?

Woot Chinese people be free from China!

Understanding of the people, have the right to speak.
China will become more and more democracy! Murderer can not be condoned! My home in Urumqi!

Government will not abuse anyone, my home in Urumqi! ! ! Perpetrators should not be punished right? If they killed your mother. You will feel that they are innocent it?

Sorry! My English not good! I would like to tell you the truth! I very much would like to make friends!msn:liangk320@live.cn

I salute the brave people of China .

...serious violation of Chinese law...

Hmmmm. I could be wrong, of course, but I am pretty sure that when it come to government activity, China likes to think of them more as "optional guidelines" than "laws"...

...and Bruce Lee's little posts have GOT to be the worst imitation of Chinese=accented English I have ever read. Funny, though...in a tired, boring, unfunny kind of way...

How cruel thugs!
Please take a look!
Rabiye Qadir is Murderer!
http://news.163.com/special/00012700/JMDS0706PHOTO.html

More cruel!

http://cn.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1010/1/5/5/101015529_9.html?coluid=7&kindi...