Xinjiang capital in chaos as mobs vow revenge [View All]

[Adsos Letter]

Source: (AFP)

URUMQI, China– Police have fired clouds of acrid tear gas to disperse thousands of Han Chinese protesters armed with makeshift weapons, as chaos gripped this flashpoint city riven by ethnic tensions.

Thousands of heavily armed police deployed across Urumqi the capital of China's remote northwest Xinjiang region on Tuesday, but tensions spiked dramatically following weekend rioting that claimed at least 156 lives.

Authorities said they had arrested 1,434 suspects, accusing them of murder, assault, looting and burning during the attacks by Muslim Uighurs against the Han, China's dominant ethnic group who are seen in Xinjiang as oppressors.

But despite a security clampdown involving police with submachine guns, shotguns and batons, mobs of Han Chinese marched through Urumqi -- including some wielding bricks, chains and bats who vowed revenge against Uighurs.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090707/wl_afp/chinaunrestxinjiang