Beijing - Mosques were closed in China's far western city of
Urumqi Friday, forcing Muslims to hold prayers at home, as the
government used police, troops and public appeals in a bid to prevent
more conflict between Uighur and Han Chinese residents there.
'The official word is that they're open, ... but we went to four
different mosques, and they all say they're closed,' a news
photographer working in Urumqi told the German Press Agency dpa by
telephone.
The city 'looks better' and the atmosphere seemed 'more relaxed'
on the streets on Friday, he said after rioting in the city this
week, 'but it just takes a few minutes to get it agitated.'
There were no longer groups of people armed with sticks on the
streets, but thousands of police and troops were still keeping order,
and ethnic divisions appeared strong, the photographer said.
Han Chinese taxi drivers refused to visit Uighur areas because
they were afraid of being attacked, he said.
Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday called for stability in
the Xinjiang region, of which Urumqi is the capital, and said
organizers of recent rioting had links to 'separatism' and
international terrorism.
Stability in Xinjiang was the 'most important and pressing task'
facing the government, Hu said in a statement after an emergency
meeting of the nine-member standing committee of the ruling Communist
Party's Politburo.
Hu and the other leaders said rioting in Urumqi, was a 'serious
violent crime which was masterminded and organized by the 'three
forces' of terrorism, separatism and extremism at home and abroad.'
The remarks were Hu's first since he returned to China from Italy
on Wednesday after cancelling his attendance at the Group of Eight
summit to address the ethnic conflict in Xinjiang.
The official casualty toll stands at 156 dead and more than 1,000
injured, but Uighur exile groups said that up to 800 people have died
in the violence, many of them Uighurs shot or beaten to death by
police.
The government has not updated the number of dead and injured for
more than three days despite reports of new attacks by Uighur and Han
Chinese groups since the initial clashes on Sunday and Monday.
It has also reported little news from other cities in Xinjiang,
some of which also experienced protests this week by Uighurs, a
Turkic-speaking Muslim group that accuses Beijing of discrimination.
Xinjiang's population of about 20 million includes about 8 million
Uighurs and more than 10 million Han Chinese, China's dominant ethnic
group.
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