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CHINESE POLICE CONTINUES TO SWEEP "ILLEGAL" UIGHURS OUT OF URUMCHI
[East Turkistan Information Center, 2001/08/14]
Nearly two hundred Uighurs have been arrested following a clash
between Uighurs and Chinese officials at a Uighur market in Urumchi
on August 6th.
From August 7th to today, the Chinese police has been intensifying its its sweep out operation against Uighurs for alleged illegal business activities at the Sanshihangzi market in the city of Urumchi, Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.
The police campaign followed two incidents, first, at the Sanshihangzi market when several Chinese tax collectors had seriously beaten a Uighur woman on August 6th, and, second, in front of the local police station, where the police dispersed a crowd of Uighurs who protested unlawful actions of the tax collectors.
From that day on, the police has detained an estimated 200 people for failing to present their identification documents.
Sanshihangze is known as an Uighur market. One can buy almost anything at the market at the lowest price in the city.
At the market, many small traders mainly came from remote undeveloped areas of the Uighur Autonomous Region like Kashgar, Hotan, Aksu, and other.Most of them were farmers who came to seek better lives in Urumchi and to escape political pressure and economic hardships in places they lived. Although their lives in Urumchi are quite hard, but still, they are much better off there than in their original places.
Such people usually have no enough money to pay the required fees to become legal and lawful residents of Urumchi. Meanwhile, each year several thousands Chinese from China are becoming lawful residents of Urumchi by an elaborated plan of the Chinese government.
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ETIC REPORT 2000 
