By ETHAN Markoff
Since the fight between the Han and Uighur ethnic groups in the far western China that claimed more than 200 people, the region seems a normal habitat of thousands of people living there. However, the apparently appears calm province is different underneath. The ground fact is, the glossy and mercantile glitz of Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region witnesses an uncomfortable silence. The city is guarded invisibly by thousands of surveillance cameras apart from black-shirt police officers.
The locals, if not threatens but warns the new travelers not to venture to the Uighur part of town at night.
The riot between Uighur mobs and Han Chinese shook the region one year back. The Han Chinese were thrashed with iron bars and bricks - in return the Han Vigilantes sought revenge that continued to blood game for several days. The government in action tried to wash down the blood bath with a whooping 1.5 billion spending package, change of authority and tore apart the fiery slogans.
But the efforts of government so far done little to assuage the hatred between two groups. The Chinese government left no stone unturned to bump into perceived troublemakers and arrested at least nine people allegedly involved in the bloodshed. The government "strike hard" campaign has actually aggravated fiery nerves and amplified the simmering tension.
“I don’t think a single Uighur is convinced that the government is acting in their interests,” said Dru C. Gladney, a professor of Asian studies at Pomona College in California who studies the region. “In fact, the hostile environment is making people feel embattled and resentful.”
There are hundreds of thousands of Han who migrates to Xinjiang every year, to find a different story all together. The majority Uighurs are a part of the country’s happy kaleidoscope of 56 ethnicity. In a recent move, Beijing replaced the region's leader, Wang Lequan who was much popular as his hard-line approach always alienated Uighurs, instigating protests by Han residents.
On the other side, Uighurs feel they are trapped as to leave the country passport rules are quite strict. At affluent coastal cities the resident rules are also quite a discipline for the group. The government has implemented strict rules that cut them off from overseas jobs, academic opportunities and family reunification. The trade rules also frustrate the business owners who are eying to seek a bigger trade opportunities with its Central Asian neighbors.
The government fears that the radicalizing of Islam can create an unwarranted uproar in the province, so they have implemented restrictions like Uighurs travel to Mecca, Saudi Arabia for the annual pilgrimage and force students and government workers not to obey fast during Ramadan. The normal life also got affected as cellphones and e-mails are highly monitored.
Anu Kultalahti, a researcher at Amnesty International in London who interviewed witnesses of last July’s violence, said the fear extended to those now living in Europe and the United States. “It borders on paranoia,” she said.
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