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Chinese Prez vows crackdown on rioters; Xinjiang still tense

Chinese President Hu Jintao, forced to skip the G-8 summit in Italy due to the country’s worst communal bloodbath in the restive Xinjiang, has vowed to crack down on perpetrators of the riots which killed 156 people and cast a shadow on his pet concept of a “harmonious society.”

Chairing an urgent meeting of the Standing Committee of the Politburo of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC), soon after arriving in Beijing, Hu, who also doubles as General Secretary of the party, discussed the situation in Xinjiang in the aftermath of the riots.

Hu told the meeting that maintaining stability in oil-rich Xinjiang is the “most important and pressing task.”

The meeting also vowed “severe punishment” for culprits, the CPC said in a statement.

The Standing Committee of the Politburo, the top organ of the CPC, ordered authorities to “isolate and crack down on the tiny few” and “unify and educate the majority of masses”.

Meanwhile, the situation in Urumqi, the regional capital remained tense and the troops, who were rushed to the city of 2.3 million, maintained tight vigil to prevent further riots after the violence left at least 156 people dead and over 1,000 others injured.

The riots erupted on Sunday night when thousands of Muslim Uygyrs took to the streets and clashed with Han

Chinese, China’s dominant ethnic group, protesting over an ethnically-charged brawl last month at a toy factory in southern China that left two Uygurs dead.

Meanwhile, the CPC has asked the government to “firmly crack down on serious crimes including assaults, vandalism, looting and arson” to maintain social stability and safeguard

people’s fundamental interests in Xinjiang, the state-run news agency reported.

“Instigators, organisers, culprits and violent criminals in the unrest shall be severely punished in accordance with

the law,” it said.

“Those taking part in the riot due to

provocation and deceit by separatists, should be given education.”

Already, the local government has put up red stickers up outside apartment compounds saying, “Don’t listen to any

rumours” and “Keep calm and maintain public order.”

Police delivered truckloads of vegetables in Urumqi, where they were sold on sidewalks so that people kept away from local markets due to three days of chaos could resume normal life.

The deadly July 5 unrest in Urumqi, capital of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, has “profound” political background, the statement said.

It was a serious violent crime which was masterminded and organised by the “three forces” of terrorism, separatism and extremism at home and abroad, it said.

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Chinese Prez vows crackdown on rioters; Xinjiang still tense

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