Fresh grief in Urumqi as people rebuild

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-16 00:39

URUMQI: The death toll from the violence that rocked northwest China's Urumqi city 10 days ago hit 192 Wednesday, bringing fresh grief to the population still trying to rebuild social cohesion.

Yan Cailu, who was wounded in the July 5 riot, calls his relatives as he leaves the hospital in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, July 15, 2009. [Xinhua]

Twelve people who were injured in the July 5 riot were discharged from the Urumqi PLA 23rd Hospital on Wednesday. Most had been beaten with clubs and bricks.

Yan Cailu, one of those discharged, called his family in the eastern Anhui Province on his mobile phone to break the news.

Full coverage:
Riot in Urumqi

"They have been worrying about me," he said. "Now they can finally breathe a sigh of relief."

In Tianshan District in Urumqi, a vehicle shop that was torched and vandalized has resumed business after a quick redecoration.

Consumers walked around the spacious exhibition room, where dozens of news cars were displayed.

Hundreds of rioters had torched 27 cars and smashed up another 24 at the shop, affiliated to Xinjiang Tongtong Commerce and Trade Company.

"We have sold nine vehicles since Sunday when we resumed business," said Ma Dehua, marketing supervisor of the company. "Although we lost several million yuan in the violence, things are getting better. We believe the government will help us to pull through and we will help ourselves too."

Journalists are gradually leaving Urumqi with only 30 registered journalists with 20 news organizations in the press center at the downtown Haide Hotel on Wednesday. Less than 20 journalists could be seen in the center editing dispatches or surfing the Internet in the afternoon.

More than 100 overseas media organizations and 40 domestic news swarmed into the city after the riot.

"Our workload has been decreasing. We used to do three stories a day a few days after the riot. But now we only do one story about the city every day," said a journalist with Hong Kong TVB.

Residents were also trying to resume normality after the bloodshed.

Harry Potter fans, mostly children accompanied by adults, and high school and university students on the summer break, turned out at cinemas Wednesday for the long-awaited film.

Showings of the "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", the sixth installment of the wizard series, in Xinjiang were delayed to midday Wednesday for safety reasons, while cinemas in other parts of China released it at midnight Wednesday as scheduled.

Posters of Harry Potter and a huge scroll reading "Against separation, safeguarding unity" hung side by side on the outside walls of a cinema close to the center of the bloody violence on July 5.