(사진제공=AP통신)
(사진제공=AP통신)
[베이징=AP/KNS뉴스통신] 중국 신장 위구르 자치구에서 지난 주말에 테러가 잇따라 발생해 총 18여명의 사망자가 발생했다고 우루무치 시 당국자가 발표했다. 중국 신화통신도 신장 우루무치에서 위구르인들의 분리 독립운동의 일환으로 보이는 폭력사태가 발생해 많은 사상자가 발생했다고 보도했다.
이번 사태는 이슬람교도들인 위구르인들은 한족의 대량 이주로 자신들의 본고장인 신장지역에서 소수민족으로 전락하고 있다는 좌절감에서 폭력 사용으로 발전한 것으로 알려지고 있다.
중국 신장 위구르 자치구의 국경도시 카슈가르시내에 있는 한 식당에서 테러범들이 주인과 고용인을 사살하고 불을 지르는 사건의 진압과정에서 테러범 5명이 사살됐다. 전날에도 테러가 발생해 7명이 사살, 22명이 부상당하는 사태가 발생했었다.
(영문기사 원문)
18 killed in 2 attacks in troubled NW China
BEIJING (AP) — A city government said Monday that six more civilians died and five "terrorist" suspects were killed by police in one of China's most troubled ethnic regions, raising the death toll from weekend violence to 18.
Xinijang region in China's far west has been on edge since nearly 200 people were killed in fighting between Uighurs and Han Chinese in 2009 in Urumqi, the regional capital.
Xinhua did not give a reason for the latest violence, but Xinjiang has been beset by ethnic conflict and a sometimes-violent separatist movement by Uighurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group that sees Xinjiang as its homeland. Many Uighurs say they have been marginalized as more majority Han Chinese move into the region.
Police killed four suspects Sunday after "a group of armed terrorists" stormed into a restaurant in Kashgar city center, killing the owner and a waiter and then setting the restaurant on fire, the Kashgar city government said in two statements on its websites.
They then ran out of the restaurant and stabbed civilians indiscriminately, leaving another four people dead and 12 injured, it said.
Police then opened fire and shot dead four suspects at the scene, while another suspect died later in a hospital, it said.
The statement called it a "premeditated terrorist attack."
Sunday's violence followed a day of clashes in the same Silk Road city that killed seven people and injured 22.
It was unclear who started the clashes in Kashgar. But an overseas ethnic activist group said Sunday that it feared the violence could prompt a new crackdown on minority Uighurs blamed for previous violence in the region.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the German-based World Uyghur Congress, said that frustrations were forcing Uighurs to take to the streets.
"Uighurs have no peaceful way to oppose the Chinese government so some have taken to extreme measures. It is unthinkable but it is the reality, and Beijing should take responsibility to deal with these issues," he told The Associated Press from Sweden, where he is based.
China defends its treatment of minorities, saying all ethnic groups in the country are treated equally and that tens of billions of dollars in investment and aid have dramatically raised living standards.
On Saturday night, two knife-wielding men hijacked a truck in Kashgar, then rammed the vehicle into a crowd and got out to attack pedestrians, a police official said.
The attackers' identities and motive were unclear.
People who came under attack retaliated, and one of the suspects was killed and the other caught, said the official from the Xinjiang regional public security bureau.
김희광 기자 april4241@naver.com
