KAWALAN KETAT: ELAK SENGKETA ETNIK...?

Heavy security in China's Urumqi

Chinese security forces have been deployed on the streets of Urumqi, the capital of the western region of Xinjiang, where the country's worst ethnic violence in decades flared exactly one year ago. Teams of police with guns and batons fanned out across Urumqi on foot, in vans and on motorcycles on Monday. Authorities checked the bags of visitors to markets and hotels and a reported 40,000 surveillance cameras with "riot-proof" shells were being used to monitor potential hotspots. The government's measures show Beijing is determined to prevent a repeat of the violence when rioting, street battles, mob attacks and reprisals flared between the mainly Muslim Uighur minority and China's dominant Han Chinese. The unrest left nearly 200 people dead and 1,700 injured - with Han making up most of the victims - according to government figures. Sumber: Al-Jazeera paper, 5/7/2010