THE URUMQI RIOTS - WHAT CONTACTS SAY HAPPENED

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 04 BEIJING 002183

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/31/2029
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PROP CH
SUBJECT: THE URUMQI RIOTS - WHAT CONTACTS SAY HAPPENED

REF: BEIJING 1955

Classified By: Acting DCM Aubrey Carlson. Reasons 1.4 (b),(d).

Summary and Comment
--------------


1. (C) For three weeks following the initial July 5 violence
in Urumqi, a series of EmbOffs visited Xinjiang to seek out
solid information about the incident and its aftermath.
Using the information gathered, we have put together a
timeline of the events that began that day. Following is one
of those first drafts of history that may be altered in time,
but for now we are confident that we have gotten the record
straight. Embassy officers, who were present in Urumqi less
than 24 hours after the initial violence was reported and on
the ground for two and a half weeks after the initial
rioting, had access to a wide range of Xinjiang residents in
Urumqi, Kashgar and Khotan. Surveillance by Chinese security
services was persistent but for the most part did not
prohibit EmbOffs from having conversations. Local
authorities in Kashgar did order our second group of visiting
Embassy officers "not to conduct interviews." Uighur
residents were generally less eager to speak to Embassy
officers than Han citizens were, but the number of people
with whom we spoke, including numerous Uighurs, provides some
confidence in our compilation of the events of July 5-7. Key
observations: The violence that occurred the night of July
5, separated by a few hours from the initial, mostly peaceful
Xinjiang University protest at People's Square, was
overwhelmingly Uighur violence against Han. The Urumqi
police response on July 5 appears to have been inadequate,
allowing the rioting to flare out of control. In contrast,
deployed PAP troops in Urumqi on July 7 contained the violent
and deadly Han counter-riot more quickly.


2. (C) We continue to watch with concern the Chinese response
to the riots, including what appear to be indiscriminate
arrests of Uighur men, and have urged the Chinese government
to be transparent and impartial in their treatment of
criminal suspects. The below record will be worth reviewing
as we look down the road at what surely will be continued
international concern at how the Chinese "render justice" in
the aftermath of this incident. End summary and comment.

The Basic Story
--------------


3. (SBU) On the afternoon of July 5, Xinjiang University
students staged a demonstration on Urumqi's People's Square
to protest the June 26 deaths of Uighur factory workers at
the hands of Han Chinese cohorts in Guangdong. According to
contacts, the police allowed the demonstrators to convene for
a short time before dispersing the crowd and arresting some
of the leaders; the police did not use lethal force at this
point. At approximately 8:00 pm, hours after the People's
Square demonstration had broken up, groups of Uighurs, most
of whom had not participated in the original protest, began
circulating through ethnically mixed areas of the city near
Erdaoqiao and apparently at random murdered dozens of Han
civilians and destroyed Han-owned businesses and property.
Most victims, including women and the elderly, were beaten to
death.


4. (SBU) According to contacts, the violence surprised the
Urumqi police, whose crowd control measures failed. There
appeared to witnesses to have been no coordinated response to
the violence until the deployment of the first PAP units at
approximately 11:30 pm. The first use of firearms occurred
at this time, according to witnesses who heard shots.
Eyewitnesses report seeing the arrest of dozens of rioters.
The Chinese government acknowledges that People's Armed
Police (PAP) responding to the violence killed Uighur
rioters, but EmbOffs found no eyewitnesses -- neither Uighur
nor ethnic Han -- who reported witnessing the use of lethal
force against Uighur rioters on July 5-6. Many Uighur
contacts claimed to know of Uighur residents who had been
detained during and in the wake of the July 5 incident, and
one Uighur contact told EmbOffs he knew of two Uighur youths
murdered during the July 7 Han-on-Uighur mob violence.
EmbOffs met several Han residents who claimed to have lost
family members, acquaintances or neighbors to the violence on
July 5-6. PolOff personally witnessed Han residents engaged
in the "counter riot" on July 7. Police and PAP deployed
after the initial riots and, while clearly reluctant to use
force against Han rioters, did use tear gas and physical
force to ensure that no mosques were damaged.

Eyewitness Interviews

BEIJING 00002183 002 OF 004


--------------


5. (C) EmbOffs were present in Xinjiang continuously from
July 6, the day following the outbreak of violence in Urumqi,
until the late evening of July 24. During that time,
officers from the Political, Economic, Consular, Regional
Security and Defense Attache sections spoke to individuals
who said they were eyewitnesses or otherwise had personal
knowledge of the events that occurred on July 5-7. EmbOffs
spoke with Han, Uighur and third-country national residents
in Urumqi, Kashgar and Khotan. In reconstructing the events
of those days, we have relied heavily on the accounts of
third-country, particularly American-citizen, eyewitnesses.
Where a Uighur or Han interlocutor appeared particularly
impartial or insightful, we have included those comments,
too. This analysis does not include any official information
provided by the Chinese government.

The Initial Protest
--------------


6. (C) In the days leading up to July 5, Uighur students
connected with Xinjiang University began relatively open
preparations for a demonstration on People's Square
protesting the June 26 death of Uighur migrant laborers in
Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. Beijing-based contacts have
told us that security forces had been aware of the planned
protest and seemed to be preparing for it in relatively
routine fashion, treating it as another instance of
demonstrations and protests that occur on a daily basis in
China. An American citizen teaching English in Urumqi told
us that students reportedly had used websites such as
Facebook to coordinate the demonstrations and circulate
photos of the violence in Shaoguan. Protesters had
reportedly chosen to demonstrate on July 5 because of rumors
that the remains of the Uighur laborers killed in Shaoguan
would be returned to Xinjiang that day. A Uighur lawyer in
Urumqi told us that he had been aware of the preparations and
had seen emailed photos of the Uighurs killed in Shaoguan in
the days prior to July 5. The lawyer noted he had been
surprised that Chinese authorities had not taken any measures
to censor or block these online exchanges.


7. (C) The Uighur lawyer told EmbOffs he had witnessed the
initial July 5 protest. At approximately 3:00 pm on July 5,
Xinjiang University and Xinjiang Normal University students
gathered at People's Square. Other eyewitnesses estimated
the number of protesters in the hundreds. The protesters
carried flags and signs including some that read "we are
Chinese citizens." The lawyer said that demonstrators were
calling on Xinjiang Province Chairman Nur Bekri to meet with
them to discuss the Shaoguan incident. Several hours after
the protest began, according to Urumqi residents with whom we
spoke, municipal police (not People's Armed Police) dispersed
the crowds. The Uighur lawyer, who could see the
demonstration from his office, watched the police disperse
the protesters and move them away from the square. He did
not witness any violence by either police or protesters.
Another Uighur contact said that after police told the
students the protest was illegal and that they had to
disperse, several students objected. The police used force
to detain a young Uighur woman who argued with the police.
This led to a scuffle as police attempted to arrest the woman
but did not result in any use of lethal force by police.

Violence Breaks Out; Han Chinese Murdered
--------------


8. (C) Most contacts agreed that the violence began at
approximately 8:00 pm July 5 in and around the ethnically
mixed Urumqi neighborhood of Erdaoqiao. A Canadian diplomat
told us that a Canadian citizen living in Urumqi had claimed
to witness a group of young Uighur men moving through the
Erdaoqiao area near his residence shortly after 8:00 pm. The
Canadian watched as the group began throwing bricks at a
passing Han motorcyclist, knocked him down and beat him,
apparently to death. As the Canadian ran back to his
residential compound, he saw another group of young Uighurs
dragging out the Han occupants of a car and beating them with
metal pipes. The following morning he learned that two Han
grocers on his street had also been murdered.


9. (C) An American citizen resident of Urumqi, who said he
had ventured out on a bicycle around midnight, told us he had
counted sixteen Han bodies, including one older woman and a
younger woman. All appeared to have been bludgeoned, and one
man had been dragged out of his car and beaten to death. He
said he had witnessed a group of approximately 20 young, male
Uighurs cheering while carrying bricks, sticks and machetes.

BEIJING 00002183 003 OF 004


He also saw small groups of Han Chinese fleeing from the
violence. Another American citizen who claimed to have
observed the violence from his apartment said most of the
rioters were young Uighur men in their teens and twenties.
Roughly 10 percent of the Uighur rioters, he said, were
women, who were pointing out Han victims and encouraging the
men to attack.


10. (C) A third-country national who said he was taking
shelter in a restaurant during the violence reported that he
had ventured out into the streets around 11:30 pm and seen
trucks bringing bloodied Han Chinese to the hospital. A
young, college-educated Uighur resident in the southern
Xinjiang city of Hetian (Khotan),who claimed to have heard
first-hand accounts of the violence from friends who had
returned from Urumqi, said that after violence had erupted as
a result of the police breaking up the protest in People's
Square, violence broke out, "some policemen were killed," and
then "some Uighurs did bad things."

Delayed Police Response
--------------


11. (C) Our contacts almost universally agreed that the
violence by roaming groups of Uighur youths had continued
unopposed for some hours and that there had been no
coordinated reaction by the police until late in the evening.
Witnesses generally agreed that the first gunshots had been
heard several hours after the outbreak of violence. An
American citizen told us that at approximately 9:30 pm she
had seen a group of municipal police attempting to use sticks
and ax handles to clear people from the road. Another
American citizen reported first seeing armed security
personnel in formations blocking vehicle traffic on several
streets at 11:45 pm. Shortly after that, he said, he first
heard several bursts of gunfire. The Canadian citizen
reported that starting about 12:30 am (i.e., early July 6),
he had heard scattered bursts of gunfire.


12. (C) Although a number of our contacts reported witnessing
arrests of Uighur rioters, none of our eyewitnesses reported
seeing the police use lethal force. An American citizen said
he saw a group of approximately 80 Uighurs being loaded onto
two buses by armed police at 12:30 am. During this process,
a large group of Han approached the police. The American
citizen saw a plainclothes police officer with a rifle and
several uniformed police begin to argue with the group, which
quickly dispersed after a warning shot was fired into the
air. Our contacts reported last hearing gunfire around 4:00
or 5:00 am July 6.


13. (C) Beijing University Assistant Professor Yu Wanli told
PolOff in Beijing that a friend on the Urumqi municipal
police force had told him that police had been afraid to fire
their weapons when the violence broke out. "Everyone knew"
that shots fired would set off a full-blown riot, and the
police were convinced they were not strong enough to hold off
an angry crowd. They knew the army would not come to save
them, so they did not fire on protesters, Yu said. Later,
when the riots disintegrated into roving bands, police had
used force and fired their weapons, but not until very late
at night. Yu said his friend had great feelings of guilt and
believed that if police had been willing to use deadly force
earlier, they could have prevented many deaths, but they had
been unprepared to handle the intense violence.

July 5-6 Victims Overwhelmingly Han, According to Contacts
-------------- --------------


14. (C) PolOffs encountered many Han residents who claimed to
have lost family members July 5, including one man who said
both his brothers had been killed. Longtime Embassy contact
Fan Chenguang, the Han pastor of Urumqi Mingde Road Church,
told PolOff that one of her Han parishioners had been killed
in the violence and one injured. Chen Jieren (protect),
nephew of Politburo Standing Committee member He Guoqiang and
editor of a Communist Youth League website who said he had
personally visited hospitals in Urumqi on July 6, told us in
Beijing that the majority of victims of the violence had been
Han. During almost three weeks in Xinjiang, EmbOffs
encountered no eyewitnesses who reported seeing the use of
lethal force by police or PAP against Uighur rioters on July

5. Many Uighurs knew of Uighur residents who had been
detained, but none reported knowing anyone who had been
killed July 5. The Uighur professional in Hetian, who
described himself as a conservative, devout Muslim and gave a
lengthy, animated account of injustices suffered by Uighurs
at the hands of Han Chinese, made no attempt to deny Han
deaths on July 5 and did not claim that large numbers of

BEIJING 00002183 004 OF 004


Uighurs had been killed in that incident.

July 7 Counter-Riots
--------------


15. (C) Although similarly murderous, rioting by Han
residents on July 7 seemed to be smaller in scale and better
contained by the authorities than the violence of July 5.
PolOff was present at the start of the July 7 Urumqi riots
and saw groups of dozens of Han men holding clubs moving
toward the Uighur quarter. Although PAP were heavily
deployed in Urumqi after July 5, the July 7 Han rioters
initially met with little resistance. The rioters inflicted
significant damage to businesses on a number of streets in
the Uighur quarter. However, as Han protesters moved deeper
into Uighur neighborhoods they were dispersed by riot police
using tear gas and noisemaking "flash-bang" explosive
devices. An American citizen witness said that the July 7
rioters were mostly Han men in their thirties. A Japanese
owner of an expatriate bar in a largely Han part of Urumqi
said Chinese had attacked Uighur stores in his neighborhood
on July 7 and that he had seen Han Chinese he knew from his
neighborhood participating in the violence. PAP and Urumqi
police prevented Han rioters from damaging any of the city
mosques. A Uighur resident of Urumqi pointed out to EmbOffs
a spot where he said two Uighur youths were killed by
rioters. EmbOffs personally saw significant property damage
in Uighur neighborhoods from the July 7 riots.

GOLDBERG