China quick to squash explosion of anger in Uighur capital - video

July 5, 2:04 PMForeign Policy ExaminerAimee Kligman

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Uighur anger breaks out in Urumqi, the capital

We've learned about the plight of the Uighurs via their imprisonment in the Guantanamo Bay prison facility. See the articles here:

03/12: Guantanamo: what to do with the Chinese Muslims

05/05: Guantanamo: Germany will take in Uighur detainees

06/10: Guantanamo: the Chinese Uighurs are going to Palau

Despite China's repeated rhetoric that the Uighurs are a separatist, terrorist organization, it appeared that the real story is that theirs is a plight similar to that of Tibetans.

According to Rue89, this eruption is yet another crack in the homogeneous facade presented to the world between the majority Han and other minority sects in the Republic of China.

In a similar manner to the protests which were fueled in Iran after the announced results of their presidential election, electronic messaging alerted the world (read Twitter and other internet social sites) to the developments in Urumqi, the police crackdown, and the first arrests, as seen in the photo above. Videos which were uploaded to the internet were quickly 'sanitized' by the Chinese cyberpolice, and all cellular phones were rendered useless by the end of Sunday.

While the causes for the Uighur uprising is not yet know, the official new agency Xinhua, groups of 'people' started attacking pedestrians and cars in downtown streets. Internet users indicated that thousands of people were involved and reported a variety of incidents. It is thought that this outburst was in answer to an anti-Uighur crackdown last May, when false accusations were made that Uighurs had raped Han girls.

Uighurs were shocked by the violence; cell phone videos were uploaded to the internet showing attacks between Han and Uighur workers which left many dead. See videos below:

 Today, near half of the 20 million inhabitants Xinjiang are Han, oftentimes poor farmers coming from Eastern and Central China. The migrant Uighurs in the rest of China are also the target of discrimination: in Peking, the terms 'thief' and 'Uighur' are interchangeable.