Chinese authorities have executed nine people in connection with the ethnic riots in Xinjiang
The violence in Urumqi erupted on 5 July, when protests by Uighurs left at least 197 people dead and another 1,700 injured.
Shops were smashed and vehicles set alight, with passers-by being set upon by Uighur rioters.
Two days later, groups of Han went looking for revenge as police struggled to restore order.
A total of 21 people were sentenced in October. Nine were sentenced to death, and three were given the death penalty with a two-year reprieve, a sentence which is usually commuted to life in jail.
They were convicted of crimes such as murder, damage to property, arson and robbery.
China has a history of usually parading the damned around town before executing them, to ensure maximum fear in the people.
Imagine if our G20 riots got out of hand more than they did, and this was the way the government dealt with the rioters. Imagine if there was nothing you could do about your all powerfull government.
Turkish police have fired tear gas to break up hundreds of protesters outside a meeting of the International Monetary Fund in Istanbul.Turkish police have fired tear gas to break up hundreds of protesters outside a... more
Disturbing footage of riot police attacking students at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh last weekDisturbing footage of riot police attacking students at the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh... more
Jonathan LaTourelle, 26, junior at the University of Pittsburgh who lives in South Oakland, had participated in protests in Lawrenceville on Thursday and the permitted "People's March to the G-20" on Friday. He said he was not on campus to protest Friday night, but he went to the plaza "in solidarity with a lot of other kids who I knew were going there who were angry about what happened the night before."
At the park, he said, "People were playing duck-duck-goose and talking. Mostly, I think people were there because the events that had happened the night before ... " he said.
"We weren't doing anything. We weren't confronting them. We weren't even protesting." He said the police didn't give the order to disperse "until they had surrounded most of the park." Many people then left. He said a group was pushed across Forbes Avenue and into the Cathedral of Learning lawn. He said some were turned away by police on Fifth Avenue.
"No matter where you went, there was no way to leave," he said. "A lot of people were saying, 'I'm just trying to leave.'"
He said he was released from SCI Pittsburgh at 5:30 a.m. and met by members of the Pittsburgh G-20 Resistance Project. He said they asked him about his physical and mental condition, fed him, and gave him a ride home.
He said he was not a member of the G-20 group, but belonged to a college group that had worked on education issues around G-20.
Drew Singer, editor of the student newspaper The Pitt News, watched the events from a window in the William Pitt Union, which has a view of Schenley Plaza. Two Pitt News photographers were among those arrested.
"There were way more police than there were civilians, nonpolice," he said.
He said the police gave a loud order to disperse. He said police usually arrest people who are especially unruly, but Friday night, "it seemed like anybody who didn't leave immediately was being arrested even if they were just kind of watching. Technically, they did not disperse."
He said some Pitt News reporters saw people passing out note cards earlier in the day at the permitted "People's March to the G-20," which announced a rally that night in Schenley Plaza.
While there may have been protesters, he said, "I personally didn't see a single protester. There was absolutely nothing like Thursday night. It was overwhelmingly spectators and people who just wanted to see what was going on. It seems like just after Thursday night, [police] just weren't taking anything. They just weren't up for any funny business. They gave the orders to disperse, and I guess anybody who didn't immediately disperse they were going after, it seemed like."
n
"It was all students and no protesters -- it looked like any Friday night in Oakland but with more people," said Nathan Lanzendorfer, 23, of Mt. Lebanon. He went to Oakland out of curiosity to see the protests. Shortly before midnight he was caught on Forbes Avenue, with police deploying OC gas from two directions.
He was hit with a rubber bullet in his right leg and his left, started to run, and was then hit in an arm and his lower back.
"I never heard any warning to leave the area -- all four [rubber bullet] shots were within five seconds," he said. "All the wounds on my back. If I was opposing [the police] at all you'd think I'd have a front wound."
Mr. Lanzendorfer went to UPMC Presbyterian for treatment of his contusions, one of which is softball-sized, he said.
n
Post-Gazette reporter Sadie Gurman, 24, was among those arrested on the Pitt Cathedral of Learning lawn.
"I was arrested on the cathedral lawn while truly trying to get out of the fray," she said.
Posted: 12:44 pm EDT September 24, 2009Updated: 7:46 pm EDT September 25, 2009
PITTSBURGH -- A few thousand demonstrators have stopped their march on one of Pittsburgh's bridges and are shouting toward the Group of 20 meeting site from afar.
The Iraq Veterans Against War painted messages on the sidewalks of Fifth Avenue in Oakland with mud and chalk.
Other groups in attendance for Friday's march included Free Tibet, Code Pink, Hoola Hoop Against G-20 and Honk For Homos.
These were feeder groups that joined the larger, organized Peoples' March.
All remained peaceful and police just lined the route to keep them on the right path.
The protesters have stopped on the Andy Warhol Bridge and turned toward the David L. Convention Center, which is a few hundred yards upriver. They are shouting toward the building and addressing their opposition to what's happening inside.
One woman on a bullhorn is yelling, "Power to the people, not the G-20."
Seven Coast Guard and city police boats are underneath the bridge, keeping an eye on protesters.
The march has a city permit and organizers have pledged to keep it nonviolent.
More than 1,000 protesters are on the move in Pittsburgh for what has been billed as a peaceful protest against the Group of 20 summit.
Pete Shell, an organizer of the so-called "People's March" peaceful protest, said most of the marchers are demanding solutions to environmental and economic crises they believe were created by the G-20.
Friday's march began in Oakland near Carlow University with chanting, folk songs and signs with slogans ranging from "Peace over Profits" to "Eat the Rich." Many signs bore anti-war messages.
At least two dozen black-clad and masked anarchists were in the crowd. Anarchists were behind some of the clashes with police during Thursday's protests in Bloomfield, Lawrenceville and Oakland.
The 3-Rivers Climate Convergence, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Women's Coalition, Meditation for Peace, and Students for Justice in Palestine are all a part of the march, too.
"We have been having violence training, peace guide training," said Jessica Benner of the Thomas Merton Center. "We have peace guides here to make sure things go smoothly."
The event started at 1:30 p.m. with a rally at Fifth Avenue and Craft Avenue. From there, the protestors marched down Fifth Avenue to the City-County Building. They then headed down Grant Street to the federal building and down 10th Street on their way to the convention center.
Channel 11 News reporter Rick Earle said the streets are packed with 5,000 to 10,000 people.
The groups met Thursday evening at the Thomas Merton Center in East Liberty to finalize their plans. They're demanding "money for human needs, not war."
Additional protesters were positioned outside of Soldiers and Sailors in Oakland on Friday. Among the groups protesting in that location were Hula Hoop Against the G-20 and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
“We see ourselves as basically being somebody's business expenditures and we wanted to express that and also affirm that we're not willing to show for the profits of other people anymore,” said veteran Joyce Wagner.
Separate from that march, the G-20 Resistance Project encouraged "affinity groups" to protest Friday morning at companies that it says represent greed, exploitation, warfare and other social ills, with potential targets including banks, Starbucks, McDonald's, grocery stores and a Marine Corps recruiting center.
That sounds like a good protest to me, and not like the stuff that current has been reporting. This is from a source in the city it's self. I am posting an additional article about the other riots.Thousands March In Peaceful G-20 Protest
Posted: 12:44 pm EDT September 24,... more
This is the story the news didn't show you about the protests in Pittsburgh.
The Pittsburgh Police responded with overwhelming force on a group of students who were convening in a park for an impromptu concert. Over 1000 officers made over 42 arrests to a gathering of people that weren't protesting or demonstrating to any extent. The students, and innocent bystanders, including children, were corralled like sheep into alleyways, and buildings, where they were tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, and blasted by deafening LRAD devices. The majority of people caught in the standoff were Pitt students trying to find their way back to the saftey of their dorms. The Pittsburgh Police and SWAT forces violated our constitutional rights to assemble and protest. There was never physical provocation from the gatherers towards the cops, yet they were met with weapons, agents, and devices that are used against insurgents in Iraq. If you feel strongly about this video, please contact the ACLU and refer them to this video.
As US citizens, we cannot, and will not give up our constitutional rights. We will not be bullied by police officers for standing up for our beliefs, and causes. We will not allow law enforcement to use weapons on us without provocation. Our voices will not be hushed by the media who refused to cover this story from our eyes. We will not be herded as scared sheep into an alley way. We will march for what we believe in, and fight for our basic constitutional rights.
This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b...
Use of this footage is not permitted without written consent of Thomas Larkin. If you would like to use this footage, please contact tom@tlarkinproductions.comThis is the story the news didn't show you about the protests in Pittsburgh.
The... more
The Government will be desperate to calm tempers and restore order as the leaders in Beijing are preparing for the Communist Party’s biggest party in a decade to celebrate 60 years of party rule.
One resident of Urumqi said he saw a group of ethnic Han Chinese beating up a man from the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighur minority, accusing him of being among those suspected of stabbing passers-by with syringes.The Government will be desperate to calm tempers and restore order as the leaders in... more
China's pollution controls have failed to keep pace with economic development, the country's environment minister has admitted as details emerged of another riot sparked by fears of industrial contamination.
In at least the third clash in as many weeks, 2,000 riot police fired tear gas and warning shots during a violent confrontation with anti-pollution protesters near an industrial plant in Quanzhou, Fujian Province.
The demonstrators destroyed cars, threw stones at police and took an official hostage last weekend in an attempt to sabotage a tannery and chemical plant that they blamed for a foul stench and high rates of cancer. Tensions have risen as the smell has worsened, locals said.China's pollution controls have failed to keep pace with economic development, the... more
"More than 30 police officers were injured in clashes or accidents during protests at the G20 summit in London, new figures show.
The injuries ranged from being hit by flying debris, attacked by protesters or crushed in crowds to dog bites and being scalded while making a hot drink.
Details of the police injuries suffered were obtained through a series of freedom of information requests.
Paul McKeever, chairman of the Police Federation of England and Wales, said frontline policing was "often an extremely complex and dangerous job", especially when they had to deal with "extremist or militant factions" within demonstrations.
"It is all too easy to forget that police officers are expected to run towards the dangers most of us run from," he said.""More than 30 police officers were injured in clashes or accidents during protests at... more
Khamenei admits a lack of evidence to foreign instigation of the Iranian riots earlier this year... he has now moved on to this unproven blanket statement; "there is no doubt that this movement, whether its leaders know or not, was planned in advance."Khamenei admits a lack of evidence to foreign instigation of the Iranian riots earlier... more
The exact cause of the 11-hour riot that broke out Aug. 8 at the California Institution for Men in Chino, Calif., won't be known until an official investigation by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is completed. However, to some criminal-justice experts the violence that erupted at the facility, located about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, was an inevitable consequence of a state prison system long hobbled by massive overcrowding, program cuts and understaffed facilities. And given the state's ongoing budget woes — with $1.2 billion in cuts mandated to the prison budget — the situation is likely to only get worse.
The exact cause of the 11-hour riot that broke out Aug. 8 at the California Institution for Men in Chino, Calif., won't be known until an official investigation by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) is completed. However, to some criminal-justice experts the violence that erupted at the facility, located about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, was an inevitable consequence of a state prison system long hobbled by massive overcrowding, program cuts and understaffed facilities. And given the state's ongoing budget woes — with $1.2 billion in cuts mandated to the prison budget — the situation is likely to only get worse.
"You can't build yourself out of this mess," says Jeanne Woodford, former warden at San Quentin and former head of the CDCR. "The state can't afford it." Apparently, California only accounted for the construction costs and never included the operating expenses. "So even if those places are built," says Woodford, "where will California get the money to staff them? We're broke. How the heck are we going to operate these prisons? Most prisons cost from $150 to $200 million a year to operate. There's just no money for it."
In addition to overcrowding, the state's corrections efforts are the nation's most expensive — and one of the least effective. The state spends $10 billion annually, or $49,000 per inmate for a year in custody, according to statistics from the nonpartisan policy-advising group Legislative Analyst's Office. Yet, California's recidivism rate is 70%, one of the worst in the country.
Given the state's lack of traction on prison reform, a federal three-judge panel recently ordered California to come up with a plan in the next 45 days that reduces the inmate population by nearly 43,000 prisoners. Seth Unger, press secretary for the CDCR, says they will appeal any final ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court. "Congress passed the Prison Litigation Reform Act to limit the power of the federal courts to take control of state prison systems and to order population caps or early release of inmates and we certainly believe the court has overstepped its bounds in this case," says Unger.
He says his department recently introduced a proposal, yet to be deliberated on by legislators, that would reduce the average daily prison population by 27,300. Of course, politicians, particularly state Republicans, are loath to endorse any measure that smacks of releasing prisoners early or that could be viewed as being soft on crime — which has been a roadblock to reforming the system in the past. Prison-reform advocates are hoping the ruling by the federal court will inspire political will for their cause.
Even if California avoids federal intervention and the CDCR's current proposal is adopted, mandated state budget cuts will force the department to cut half of the already depleted programs for rehabilitation, substance abuse and vocational training. That would spell disaster, according to Woodford. "We release 10,000 [prisoners] a month now and in that 10,000 very few have been involved in anything to improve who they are as human beings. That should scare us. And in that 10,000 are some very violent people that left a lockup unit like Pelican Bay [to go] right back to the streets — that should scare us."
Click link to continue...The exact cause of the 11-hour riot that broke out Aug. 8 at the California... more
In August 30 of 2000 Bill Clinton visit Colombia as a president o United States & officialy the Plan Colombia.
The entire Country Lives a wave of terrorism.
Based in Real life facts
Video Art - Recycled TV
by: Alejandro Morales & Arturo AlmanzaIn August 30 of 2000 Bill Clinton visit Colombia as a president o United States &... more
Forty prison inmates were sent to hospitals, four of them airlifted, after a riot erupted at the California Institution for Men in Chino, a spokesman said.
The melee broke out at about 8:30 p.m. Saturday at the Reception Center West facility, said Lt. Mark Hargrove, prison spokesman.
The situation was under control as of Sunday morning, he said, and inmates who had not been admitted to hospitals were being returned to the prison.Forty prison inmates were sent to hospitals, four of them airlifted, after a riot... more
Around 20 people accused of rioting in the wake of Iran’s disputed presidential election last month will be put on trial next week, the official IRNA news agency reported.Around 20 people accused of rioting in the wake of Iran’s disputed presidential... more
URUMQI, China - The initial investigation into ethnic riots that left 192 people dead in China's western Xinjiang region has been completed and arrest warrants will soon be issued, the region's chief prosecutor said Thursday.
The unrest — the worst ethnic violence China has seen in decades — began July 5 in Urumqi with a protest by Muslim Uighurs that spiraled into violence against Han Chinese, in which people were beaten and cars and buildings burned. In subsequent days, roaming groups of Han Chinese launched revenge attacks.
"The arrest warrants will be issued soon," Hamsi Mamuti, the top prosecutor for Xinjiang, was quoted as saying by the official China News Service. "The violent elements will be severely punished according to the law. The entire process will be strictly based on the law."
He said the first group of suspects had been identified, but did not give any numbers. Li Zhi, the highest-ranking Communist Party official in Urumqi, has already said some of the rioters who didn't understand what they were doing would be treated leniently, but those found guilty of the most serious crimes could be executed.
Last week, state media reported more than 1,400 people were detained in connection with the riots.
According to the official Xinhua News Agency, the Communist Party in Xinjiang, of which Urumqi (pronounced uh-ROOM-chee) is the capital, raised the death toll to 192 from 184 reported earlier, and said 1,721 people were wounded in the violence, with 881 people still in hospitals, 66 of them in critical condition. A total of 331 shops and 627 vehicles were burned in the unrest.
Source: MSNBCURUMQI, China - The initial investigation into ethnic riots that left 192 people dead... more
Chinese media reported that the Urumchi riots were sparked by a clash between migrant workers in a Hong Kong-owned toy factory in southern China. But other evidence indicates the incident was merely a convenient pretext for a premeditated plan to destabilize Xinjiang province, the center of China's oil and gas industry. NAM contributor Yoichi Shimatsu is an environmental consultant for agricultural businesses in western China's arid regions and former editor of the Japan Time Weekly.
DUNHUANG, China -- Along the Silk Road super-highway, olive-green truck convoys of the People's Armed Police, China's internal security force, roll past sand dunes and crumbling fire-signal towers toward riot-hit Urumchi. The absence of army vehicles on the morning after indicated the situation in neighboring Xinjiang province was under control.
On the previous day, just hours before the Urumchi eruption, tension was palpable in this gateway to Xinjiang. The residents of this historic caravanserai, once the last fortress of the Chinese Empire in Central Asia, were not donning their customary white caps, and none offered a smile of welcome. Residents avoided eye contact; the sun-toasted plazas crackled with tension.
That evening, as angry mobs knifed passersby, torched shops and stoned buses, a longtime friend in Urumchi, who is an Uyghur scientist, sent me a curt message: "My heart is crying." The sight of screaming children and blood-gushing wounds was a scene from hell -- a long stretch from Urumchi's image as a prosperous oasis of gleaming towers at the foot of the snowcapped Tianshan mountains. By Friday prayers, Muslims across the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region asserted that the riots had nothing to do with religion or ethnicity, and that the violence and looting were simply criminal acts of a hate-demented mob.
The Chinese media reported that the Urumchi riots were sparked by a clash between migrant workers in a Hong Kong-owned toy factory in faraway southern China. When Han Chinese workers accused several Uighurs of raping two coworkers, a bout of shouting and scuffling ended with the death of an alleged rapist.
Yet other strands of evidence indicate that the toy factory incident was merely a convenient pretext for a premeditated plan to destabilize Xinjiang province, the center of China's oil and gas industry. An uneasy coalition of exiled Uighurs has been riven with personal rivalries between the veteran Munich-based separatists and the newcomers in the United States led by Rebiya Kadeer, an Urumchi businesswoman and former member of China's parliament. The distrust between old-timers and newcomers was heightened by Washington's drive to install Kadeer as the leader of the World Uighur Congress, usurping Germany-based figures like Isa Dolkun and members of the Alptekin family. Kadeer's husband was promoted to head Radio Liberty's Uighur section, making him the boss of the Munich staff. As tensions smoldered among the exiles, action was clearly needed to unite the separatists.
Enter the Grey Wolves, one of the world's most notorious terrorist organizations. Founded in the 1960s, the Wolves are a pan-Turkic paramilitary group with 1 million followers across the Near East, Central Asia and inside Xinjiang. During the decade of political violence in Turkey in the 1980s, the military-backed activists launched a wave of assassinations, massacres of ethnic minorities, and extortions of businesses. By official count, the Turkish government holds the Wolves responsible for more than 600 murders, while leftists estimate the victims numbered in the many thousands.
*************************CONTINUES**************************Chinese media reported that the Urumchi riots were sparked by a clash between migrant... more
Police killed 400 Uighurs in the capital of China’s Xinjiang region during ethnic unrest there, exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer claimed yesterday.
Ms Kadeer said Uighur sources within “East Turkestan”, the separatist name for the northwest region, had told her 400 Uighurs had died “as a result of police shootings and beatings” in Urumqi since violence erupted there on Sunday.
Writing in The Wall Street Journal Asia, the president of the World Uighur Congress said unrest was spreading across the region and unconfirmed reports indicated more than 100 Uighurs had been killed in Kashgar, another major city in Xinjiang.
Chinese authorities have said 156 people died in Sunday’s violence in Urumqi. They have not made clear how many of the victims were Han Chinese and how many were Uighur, or how they died.Police killed 400 Uighurs in the capital of China’s Xinjiang region during ethnic... more
Ethnic protests have spread to a second city in China's western Xinjiang province after riots rocked the region's capital, killing at least 140 and injuring more than 800.Ethnic protests have spread to a second city in China's western Xinjiang province... more
BEIJING — At least 1,000 rioters clashed with the police on Sunday in a regional capital in western China after days of rising tensions between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese, according to witnesses and photographs of the riot.
The rioting broke out Sunday afternoon in a large market area of Urumqi, the capital of the vast, restive desert region of Xinjiang, and lasted for several hours before riot police officers and paramilitary or military troops locked down the Uighur quarter of the city. The rioters threw stones at the police and set vehicles on fire, sending plumes of smoke into the sky, while police officers used firehoses and batons to beat back rioters and detain Uighurs who appeared to be leaders of the protest, witnesses said.
At least three Han Chinese were killed in the rioting and 20 people were injured, according to Xinhua, the official news agency. Dozens of Uighur men were led into nearby police stations with their hands behind their backs and shirts pulled over their heads, one witness said. Early Monday, the local government announced a curfew banning all traffic in the city until 8 p.m.
The riot was the largest ethnic clash in China since the Tibetan uprising of March 2008, and perhaps the biggest protest in Xinjiang in years. Like the Tibetan unrest, it highlighted the deep-seated frustrations felt by some ethnic minorities in western China over the policies of the Communist Party.
Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking Muslim group, resent rule by the Han Chinese, and Chinese security forces have tried to keep oil-rich Xinjiang under tight control since the 1990s, when cities there were struck by waves of protests, riots and bombings. Last summer, attacks on security forces took place in several cities in Xinjiang; the Chinese government blamed separatist groups.BEIJING — At least 1,000 rioters clashed with the police on Sunday in a regional... more
