Author: Reuters
Publication: CNN News
Date: February 23, 2003
URL: http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/asiapcf/east/02/23/china.clash.reut/index.html
A group of Tibetans rioted in China's
northwestern province of Qinghai this month after one of them was stabbed
to death in a clash with members of the Muslim Hui ethnic minority.
Two Huis had been arrested for stabbing
a 50-year-old Tibetan to death with a skewer during the clash in Jianza
county on February 15, a police official said by telephone from the provincial
capital, Xining on Sunday.
"Relations between ethnic Tibetans
and Chinese Muslims in the region have been tense for years, but this incident
marks the first known large-scale clash in recent memory," the U.S.-based
broadcaster, Radio Free Asia, said in a report e-mailed to Reuters.
The official said several people
were injured and a group of Tibetans went on a rampage, smashing windows
of Hui-owned shops and restaurants.
"It all began when a group of Tibetan
and Hui youths bickered over a game of billiards," the official told Reuters.
"It had nothing to do with religion,"
he added.
The official dismissed a report
by Radio Free Asia that Chinese troops had been sent to the region to restore
order.
He said dozens of policemen and
about 100 local government officials were sent to the area to pacify the
two ethnic groups.
The broadcaster, which is funded
by the U.S. government, quoted sources in Tibet as saying hundreds were
injured and Muslim-owned shops and restaurants were ransacked after a business
dispute boiled over into clashes.
"Chinese authorities have responded
by deploying extra troops around a bridge over the Machu or Huang Ho River,
which demarcates Tibetan and Muslim living areas," the radio said.
The initial dispute followed the
sale of a motorcycle by three Tibetans to a group of Muslims, the broadcaster
said, adding that troops were still out in force patrolling the area by
February 21.
