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| Zhou Yongkang (2nd R), member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), visits a supermarket in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. |
URUMQI, July 12
The violence-torn Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is plodding on the road to recovery amid vigilance one week after the violence in its capital city of Urumqi that left 184 people dead and 1,680 injured.
Police with riot gears were inspecting checkpoints, combing coaches for runaway suspects involved in the deadly violence.
Zhou Yongkang, member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, said in his tour to the autonomous region on Sunday that to maintain social stability is the top concern of the livelihood of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang for the time being.
The regional government chairman Nur Berkri said in a televised speech Sunday afternoon that the number of people injured in violence on July 5 had risen to 1,680.
Altogether 216 of the 939 hospitalized are seriously injured and 74 injured fatally, he said.
An oil tank explosion occurred at a chemical plant in Urumqi Sunday morning. Police ruled out the possibility of intentional sabotage after on-the-spot investigation but said the reason of the explosion needs further investigation.
At the suburb of Aksu City, people who flocked into the Uygur bazaar, Toksun, as the local residents called it, said they had felt something different.
"There are much fewer people compared with what it was before the violence," said Tunxunjiang Tuohuniyazi, a local Uygur who were visiting the bazaar with his wife.
"On my way here, I saw a lot of policemen," he said. "But I understand it. The heavy security helps ensure our safety."
The bazaar, which boasts 3,000 stands, only saw a little more than 500 of them in business on Sunday.
Tuniyazi Yiming, a vender busy baking dumplings, said his turnover halved with number of the bazaar visitors on such a sharp decline.
The same bleak business picture could be seen in the border city of Kashgar in southern Xinjiang, where markets and bazaars reported only a few visitors.
Also hurt is the the region's tourism. Sources with the Urumqi Municipal government told Xinhua that because of the riot, 1,184 tour groups had cancelled their plans to visit the city as of Sunday.
They involved 74,218 travelers, including 10,731 tourists from overseas.
Railway authorities said Sunday that situation in the Urumqi's train terminal is normal.
The passenger volume was reported at 21,000 persons at the station on Sunday, 4,000 fewer than Saturday.
"There are no so-called 'waves of refugees' and ticket scalpers reported by some overseas journalists in the train terminal," said Chen Kai, vice chief of the South Train Station of Urumqi.
In Urumqi, thousands of youngsters have expressed their willingness to serve the city by signing up to be volunteers.
"Two days after the hotline was launched, we have received more than 1,600 calls," said Yu Yinglong, head of the Volunteer Association in Urumqi. "They volunteered to serve in hospitals and to give psychological help to those who were traumatized in the violence."
"The Koran teaches us that Muslims should be united. It teaches us to live in harmony with non-Muslims as well. Muslims and Non-Muslims should help and get along with each other on equal footing," said Xiahabuding Aihaiti, a teacher with the Xinjiang Academy of Islamic Scriptural.
Source: Xinhua
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