BEIJING — Patrols of armed police, backed by thousands of newly installed surveillance cameras, ensured the northwest city of Urumqi stayed tense but trouble-free Monday, the first anniversary of ethnic riots that left nearly 200 people dead last July.The rioting in the capital city of Xinjiang province, home to Muslim Uighurs (WEE-gurs), was China‘s worst ethnic violence in decades. The riots spurred Beijing to strengthen security and boost a propaganda campaign in the remote, resource-rich region, which has long simmered with ethnic unrest.

In May, Chinese President Hu Jintao set out plans to achieve “leapfrog development and lasting stability” in Xinjiang, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency. The nearly $1.5 billion project, to begin next year, aims to raise Xinjiang’s per capita GDP to the national average by 2015. It includes massive infrastructure spending, such as lengthening the region’s 521 miles of highways to nearly 2,500 over the next five years, Xinhua said

Passersby help a Chinese woman Monday in Urumqi after burning offerings at the site where one of her relatives was killed during the violence that erupted last July between the region’s Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese, the country’s dominant ethnic group.

The province, which the Chinese government calls an “autonomous region,” is larger than Alaska in size.

Although Urumqi (uh-ROOM-chee) residents have gotten used to heavy security, the anniversary brought tighter controls. “There are more police on the streets, and work units told people not to leave their homes on Monday,” said Halida Ilyaza, 38, a Uighur resident.

Ilyaza said her nephew was held for eight months after the riots, then released without charge. “We were worried for many months as we had no information about him,” she said, echoing a common Uighur complaint.

In a report issued Friday, Amnesty International cited “unnecessary or excessive use of force, mass arrests, enforced disappearances, torture and ill treatment in detention” a year ago during the government crackdown that followed the riots. The human rights group charged that a violent police response to a peaceful Uighur protest against attacks on Uighur workers “preceded the eruption of violence.”

Street clashes between Uighurs and Han Chinese, China’s dominant ethnic group, resulted in 197 deaths, mostly Han, and up to 1,700 injuries, according to government figures. Beijing blamed outside groups, notably the World Uyghur Congress and its president, Rebiya Kadeer, for inciting “premeditated violence.” Kadeer denies the allegation.

To limit overseas contacts at the time, the central government cut off Internet access and international telephone links to Xinjiang’s 23 million people. Internet access was restored in May.

Last month, Beijing launched a campaign — “Love the great motherland, build a beautiful homeland” — to promote stability, prosperity and “ethnic solidarity,” Xinhua reported.

“The situation is excellent in Urumqi now. It’s very stable and very normal,” said Wang Chunliang, deputy secretary of Urumqi’s Communist Youth League, a Party organization involved in the campaign. Xinhua led its anniversary coverage with the headline, “Urumqi bathed in golden sunshine Monday.”

Uighur activists challenge the government’s rosy view. “Uighurs are living in an open-air prison. Every day there are more and more repressive policies, so the situation could explode at any moment,” said Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, which advocates non-violent protest.

“Beijing’s policies incite racial discrimination and make Han feel that all Uighurs are terrorists,” he said. “The West must apply more political pressure on Beijing to allow Uighurs more cultural and religious freedom.”

“Xinjiang’s problems are the fault of the Chinese government and local authorities,” said Ilham Tohti, a leading Uighur intellectual who was detained for two months last July after such outspoken views. “China is progressing in many areas, but in politics and culture, it’s going backward,” said Tohti, an economics professor at Minzu University of China in Beijing.

Although Xinjiang and its Uighur people are governed by “beautifully written laws on autonomy,” those rules are rarely applied, he charged.

On top of immigration that has multiplied the Han presence in Xinjiang from 270,000 in 1949 to 8.4 million today, Han Chinese dominate all government and public positions, from police stations to train stations, according to Tohti. He said they also enjoy preferential treatment in the economy.

Government pledges in May to do more for Uighurs are more of the same, Tohti said. “For years, Beijing has launched campaigns to ‘support Xinjiang’ and ‘help the minority nationalities,’ but these have not helped develop local firms or give Uighurs real opportunities.”

Top jobs and profits go to Han, he said. “Gaps between villages and cities, and between Uighur and Han, will continue to grow.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2010-07-05-xinjiang_N.htm