Clashing Xinjiang Groups Have A Bloody History

Violence rocked the western Chinese province of Xinjiang Sunday in what has been called the most serious clashes since Tiananmen Square twenty years ago.

More than 1400 people were arrested by police Sunday and upwards of 150 killed after violence broke out between the region's two largest ethnic groups: the Uighur and Han Chinese. The two groups blame each other for the bloodshed, which may have spawned from a fight between the two groups at a toy factory weeks earlier.

But the factory skirmish was just a battle in what has been both a verbal and physical war between the two groups in recent years.

The Uighurs - Muslims, and originally of Turkic descent - have been the main occupants of the territory since the Qing dynasty, which ended in the early 20th century. But displaced Hui (the third largest ethnic group in Xinjiang) and Han Chinese have gained an increasing share of the population share over the years, with recent estimates putting the population split at 45 percent Uighur, 40 percent Han.

This increase of Han Chinese has spurned several tense inter-ethnic conflicts in the past two decades. The Chinese government has encouraged Han Chinese workers to set up businesses in traditional Uighur cities and has adopted rules the Muslim Uighur population says are unfair to their religion and culture.

Because of this, the Uighur population has been increasingly vocal in support of its own independent state. Peaceful nationalist political groups make up the majority of those calling for independence, but two Uighur separatist factions, including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, have advocated physical confrontation with the Chinese as a means to independence.

These separatist groups have led to China taking an even tougher stance against the Uighur population. They have blamed Uighurs for supposed terrorist attacks, and blame for a 1997 incident that left at least nine Uighurs dead in the Xinjiang city of Gulja was placed on the Uighurs shoulders.

Last year, tensions ran high as protests by Uighurs were staged in Xinjiang at the same time the notorious protests in Tibet were taking place. The Chinese government accused Uighurs of instigating the Tibetan protests.

And most recently, four Uighurs have been placed in custody of Bermudan authorities after their release from prison at the hands of Americans in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The Chinese have accused the men of being terrorists despite never being formally charged, and have demanded the Bermuda extradite the men to face charges in China.

The Han claimed many of the 156 killed and 1000+ injured Sunday in Urumqi were Han Chinese, while the Uighurs claimed most of the casualties and injured as their own.

Monday, Uighurs staged another protest in defiance of a major police presence in the city, shouting "God is Great," the same slogan that became their rallying cry during the 1997 protests in Gulja.

Limited press access and a government firewall banning most, if not all, internet access has made getting accurate and timely information out of Xinjiang difficult, only to be exacerbated by rampant accusations by either side. By looking at the recent past, however, it appears likely that the sporadic conflicts will continue and the relationship between the two groups will continue to boil as no middle ground seems to be anywhere in sight.