The Guardian, 28 May 2014

Seven thousand people watched as 55 suspects were pronounced guilty of crimes including terrorism at a highly unusual mass sentencing rally in China’s north-western region of Xinjiang, state media said on Wednesday.

At least one person was sentenced to death at the event on Tuesday in the northern city of Yining, according to the official Xinhua news agency.

While such public rallies were once common in China, and were widely used in a “strike hard” campaign against crime launched in 2001, they have rarely been seen in recent years.

Photographs showed armed police on guard as scores more officers stood behind orange-jacketed suspects crowded on to trucks. In some shots, suspects were bent double.

This week, Xinjiang’s Communist party chief vowed a “people’s war against terrorism” after 43 people were killed in an attack at a market in the regional capital, Urumqi, last Thursday. In recent months there have been fatal bombing and knife attacks inside and outside the region.

Authorities said police in southern Xinjiang captured five people and seized 1.8 tonnes of material for explosive devices on Monday. More than 200 people have been detained this month on suspicion of terrorist or separatist activity.

The government has blamed Uighur separatists with links to foreign terror networks for attacks. Others argue that the violence has been fuelled by domestic grievances. Many in the Muslim Uighur community chafe at the effects of Han Chinese migration and controls on their culture and religion, and feel left behind by economic development.

Xinhua said the crowd at a stadium in Yining comprised local residents and officials. The region’s deputy party secretary, Li Minghui, reportedly said the public sentencing demonstrated the determination to crack down on terrorists.

The suspects were variously sentenced for intentional homicide, splitting the country and organising or taking part in terrorist activities, Xinhua reported. Three defendants were found guilty of using “extremely cruel methods” to kill four people including a small child last year.

Officials announced the arrests of 38 suspects and the detention of 27 others for offences including separatism, covering up crimes and rape.

Mo Shaoping, a well-known lawyer in Beijing, said he believed such rallies were illegal. “I personally think the mass public sentencing session does not respect human rights. Before the legal trial, any suspect should be considered as innocent, so it breaks the spirit of the law,” he said.

Nick Holdstock, whose book The Tree That Bleeds details the year he spent living in Yining, pointed out that the city’s stadium saw a similar mass rally in 1997 after riots in the city. Three people were reportedly shot dead by police when a crowd gathered around the trucks carrying the prisoners to jail afterwards. Official reports blamed “rioters” who had ignored warning shots.

“One aspect is that the rally is intended as a deterrent, but I think it is also to reassure the public, who undoubtedly have concerns [about recent attacks],” Holdstock said. But he added that while the rally might make some people feel more secure, the unusual display could also be used to stoke resentment among others.

Maya Wang, of Human Rights Watch, said the event, taken alongside statements warning of unconventional measures in the anti-terror crackdown and calls for courts to “cooperate” in dealing with suspects, “gives an uncomfortable sense that it might be about [putting on] a show and warning people rather than delivering justice, and makes people question to what extent due process is being upheld.”

China’s leaders have promised to improve educational and job opportunities in the region, tacitly acknowledging underlying discontent. But there is concern about the impact of attacks on economic development. The director of the Xinjiang tourism bureau, Inam Nesirdin, said on Tuesday that tourists would be given a 500 yuan coupon if they holidayed in the region, after a drop in business due to terrorism fears.

He said tourism figures from March to May were 40% lower than in the same period last year, and suggesting that a terrorist attack in Kunming in March, which left 29 dead, was largely responsible.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/may/28/mass-sentencing-rally-xinjiang-china