Author: Joseph Kahn
Publication: The New York Times
Date: October 31, 2004
Violent clashes between members
of the Muslim Hui ethnic group and the majority Han group left nearly 150
people dead and forced authorities to declare martial law in a section
of Henan Province in central China, journalists and witnesses in the region
said today.
The fighting flared late last week
and continued into the weekend after a Hui taxi driver fatally struck a
6-year-old Han girl, prompting recriminations between different ethnic
groups in neighboring villages, these people said.
One person who was briefed on the
incident by the police said that 148 people had been killed, including
18 police officers sent to quell the violence.
Chinese media have reported nothing
about unrest in Henan. But a news blackout would not be unusual, as propaganda
authorities routinely suppress information about ethnic tensions.
Although most Chinese belong to
the dominant Han ethnic group, the country has 55 other groups, including
several Muslim minorities and others who have ties to Tibet, Southeast
Asia, Korea and Mongolia.
Ethnic Muslim Uighurs in China's
northwestern region of Xinjiang have led sporadic uprisings against Chinese
rule and authorities maintain a heavy police presence there to prevent
an Islamic insurgency.
Hui Muslims, scattered in several
provinces in the central and Western part of the country, are more integrated
and generally are not considered a threat to social stability.
But outbreaks of Hui unrest were
not uncommon in the 1980's and tensions can bubble to the surface after
even minor provocations.
Many Hui areas remain economically
impoverished despite rapid economic growth in China's urban and coastal
regions, and some members of minority groups say the Han-dominated government
does little to steer prosperity to them.
Friday's road accident set off large-scale
fighting after relatives, friends and fellow villagers of the young victim,
most of them Han, traveled to the taxi driver's village, home mainly to
Hui, to demand compensation.
The rival villagers failed to settle
their dispute, which quickly grew to involve thousands of people in Zhongmou
County, located between the cities of Zhengzhou and Kaifeng, according
to two accounts of the incident.
Local police failed to contain the
unrest and authorities deployed the quasi-military People's Armed Police
to restore order. Martial law was declared over the weekend, people in
the area said, adding that the situation has since stabilized.
One person briefed about the clashes
said that authorities may have been particularly alarmed after police stopped
a 17- truck convoy carrying Hui men to the area from other counties and
provinces as it passed through Qi County, near Zhongmou. Road blocks were
set up on major roads in the area and some bus services were halted.
The incident suggests that word
of the violence may have spread through a network of Hui and perhaps other
Muslim groups and that mutual support among them is relatively strong.
But the details were sketchy and difficult to confirm.
A police officer who answered the
phone in the Zhongmou County public security office tonight declined to
comment on the matter.
China's countryside and second-tier
cities are rife with unrest among peasants and workers complaining about
corruption, unpaid wages and a host of other issues. Violent protests,
once extremely rare in the authoritarian country, now are frequent occurrences.
Last week rioters looted and set
fire to police cars and a government building in Wanzhou, Chongqing, after
an argument among several people triggered a mass riot involving as many
as 10,000, residents, Western news agencies reported.
The uprising came after one local
resident identified himself - apparently falsely - as a government official
and beat another man who offended him, prompting numerous bystanders to
spread the word that a local official had abused his authority.
Chris Buckley contributed reporting
from Beijing for this article.