DUSHANBE, July 8, Asia-Plus — No Tajik national shave been hurt during the disorder in Urumqi, the capital of China’s Xinjiang-Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), Davlat Nazriyev, the head of the Tajik MFA information department, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.
“We maintain communication with Tajik Embassy in Beijing and according to information received, no Tajik nationals have been hurt during the Urumqi disorder,” the MFA spokesman said.
Tajik businessmen cooperating with Chinese entrepreneurs have temporarily refused travels to China.
The Dushanbe entrepreneur Kholmahmad Tourayev, who is engaged in delivery of goods to Tajikistan from Urumqi, said in an interview that he and his colleagues decided to temporarily refrain from traveling to China. “We are currently delivering goods from Turkey,” Tourayev said.
In the meantime, international media report that Chinese President Hu Jintao has cut short a visit to Italy for the G8 summit amid ongoing unrest in Xinjiang.
Troops are on the streets after a curfew in Urumqi, where ethnic riots on Sunday left 156 people dead. BBC reports that the security forces are now mounting a show of force after fresh clashes on Tuesday between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese. More than 1,400 people have been arrested over Sunday”s violence.
Officials say 156 people – mostly Han Chinese – died in Sunday”s violence. Uighur groups say many more have died, claiming 90% of the dead were Uighurs.
The unrest erupted when Uighur protesters attacked vehicles before turning on local Han Chinese and battling security forces. They had initially been protesting over a brawl between Uighurs and Han Chinese several weeks earlier in a toy factory thousands of miles away in Guangdong province.
China”s authorities have repeatedly claimed that exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer is stirring up trouble in the region. But she told the BBC she was not responsible for any of the violence.
Tensions have been growing in Xinjiang for many years, as Han Chinese migrants have poured into the region, where the Uighur minority is concentrated. Many Uighurs feel economic growth has bypassed them and complain of discrimination and diminished opportunities.
