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Han, Uygur groups working together at factory

By Liang Qiwen (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-08 07:50

SHAOGUAN, Guangdong: Work has resumed at the toy factory where a deadly brawl is thought to have sparked a chain of events that led to the Xinjiang riots.

Workers at the plant said they did not expect the violent dispute at the factory between Han and Uygur ethnic groups to trigger such bloodshed.

Han, Uygur groups working together at factory
Uygur workers go back to work at a toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong province, Tuesday. [Xinhua]

"The local Han people's initial actions were meant to express their dissatisfaction. But the issue has escalated unexpectedly," said a man at the Xuri Toy Factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong province, who witnessed the brawl between hundreds of people from the two groups early June 26. The fighting left two dead and 118 injured.

The violence erupted after a disgruntled former factory worker allegedly made a false post online claiming that "six Xinjiang boys had raped two innocent girls" at the factory.

The rumor was reportedly first posted on sg169.com, a major website in Shaoguan, and then re-posted on many other websites, sparking indignation that led to the brawl.

Police later said no rape cases had been reported.

Authorities detained 15 suspects in connection with the fight, Liu Guoqiang, the deputy director with the public security bureau of Shaoguan, was quoted by Xinhua as saying. Two of those arrested were accused of spreading the rumors that led to the incendiary situation.

Xinjiang authorities believe overseas groups used the ethnic tension in Shaoguan to incite Sunday's riot in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

At least 156 people have been killed there and more than 1,000 injured.

About 16,000 of the 18,000 workers at the toy factory had returned to work by yesterday, including more than 700 workers from Xinjiang, local sources said.

Jin Ling, a female worker from Nanchang in Jiangxi province, left the factory on June 27 but returned the next day.

"When I came back, I found the production line open but many workers were absent," she said.

Xuri's officials hired 800 migrant workers in May in Shufu county, which is under the jurisdiction of Kashgar in western Xinjiang, according to a press release issued by the municipal government of Shaoguan.

The hiring was in response to the central government's policy of encouraging firms to hire minorities from the western region to reduce the income gap between the area and other parts of China.

"Many people here now feel very upset about the events in Urumqi, as they had never intended to arouse such unrest," the unnamed toy factory worker said.

More than 700 workers from Xinjiang are now taking shelter in a vacant factory in Shaoguan's Baitu town, about 4 km from Xuri's factory. During a visit there yesterday, China Daily found former Xuri workers walking and talking freely while Xinjiang migrant workers guarding the gates.

Police were monitoring the situation.

A 19-year-old Uygur girl said she was satisfied with her work in Shaoguan, the Nanfang Daily reported.

The worker said she could earn more than 1,300 yuan ($191) a month at Xuri, but her monthly income in Xinjiang was only 800 yuan ($117).

According to Erbakri Turdi, Party chief of the Minxiang village of Shufu county in Xinjiang, many migrant workers from the region had complaints when they arrived "but the local government is trying to comfort them".

After the clash, Turdi said the government helped Uygur workers make phone calls home to their families.

"Unlike reports from some media, most of the workers from Xinjiang are now willing to continue working here," he said.

Xinhua contributed to the story