Uneasy calm in Urumqi

Armoured vehicles and trucks carrying thousands of Chinese troops rumbled through riot-damaged streets of the regional capital of northwestern Xinjiang on Thursday, blaring out propaganda urging ethnic unity.

But some residents of Urumqi, where 156 people were killed and 1,080 wounded on Sunday when minority Muslim Uighurs went on the rampage against Han Chinese, worried about how the two sides could ever co-exist again.

“This whole thing may go on for a few days, but eventually the government has to use force, there’s no question about that,” said Bo Zhiyue, senior research fellow and China politics expert at National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute. “Because if you don’t use force, the whole thing will snowball.”

Han Chinese, who have said they feel threatened after Sunday’s violence, cheered Thursday’s show of military might and took pictures. Uighur residents looked on with strained faces. “This makes me scared and I think it’s meant to,” said a Uighur woman called Adila.

Authorities have posted notices urging rioters to turn themselves in or face stern punishment. The notices posted on walls in the Chinese and Uighur languages, say that those who hide or protect ‘criminals’ will also be punished. 

The line of troops, armoured vehicles and trucks measuring several kilometres and blasting out the propaganda passed for about 25 minutes through Saimachang, the Uighur neighbourhood. Helicopters flying above rooftops scattered propaganda leaflets over the crowd of hundreds who gathered to watch the security forces march by.