Timeline of the riots in Xinjiang
- Source: Global Times
- [22:12 July 16 2009]
- Comments
By In Depth special report team
June 26, Friday
Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, 2 am: A rumor that a Han girl was raped by local Uygur workers triggered a dispute among workers of Xuri toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province, leading to a fight involving hundreds of people, leaving two Uygurs dead and 118 people injured.
July 1, Wednesday
The World Uygur Congress holds a special meeting planning to incite domestic mass riots via the Internet, telephone and text messages.
July 4, Saturday
Urumqi, evening: Some demagogues begin disseminating information calling for mass demonstrations at People’s Square and Nanmen in Urumqi.
July 5, Sunday
Urumqi, 1:06 am: The Urumqi police station command center is tipped off that some demagogues are disseminating illegal information on the Internet forum to try to stir up mass demonstrations at People’s Square at 7 pm.
Urumqi, 3:10 am: The Urumqi police is alerted again by the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps police that they have discovered groups of people trying to organize demonstrations within their region. The Xinjiang police launch an emergency preplan deploying police at People’s Square and Erdaoqiao.
Urumqi, 11 am: Rebiya Kadeer contacts her brother in Urumqi and says “We’ve known that many things happened already. Something might happen tomorrow evening at Urumqi.”
Urumqi, 8 pm: Some rioters start beating pedestrians, smashing buses, setting fire to shops along the streets and the mayhem quickly spreads to other parts of the downtown area. Tens of vehicles are set fire to.
Urumqi, 8:50 pm: At Erdaoqiao in downtown Urumqi, many innocent people fall down in the blood pool among the chaos. Armed police and special police arrive, disperse the crowd and arrest rioters. Firefighters and ambulances arrive simultaneously. Injured people are sent to the nearest hospitals.
The riot left 140 dead and more than 800 injured. A total of 261 vehicles including 190 buses and more than 10 taxis and other type of cars are destroyed. Some 203 stores, an area of 6,300 square meters and 14 residential houses, 1,200 square meters, are destroyed. Thousands of medical staff work around the clock to deliver timely emergency treatment.