ZHONGMOU, China, 2 November 2004 — Police imposed martial law yesterday on a town in central China’s Henan province after at least 20 people were killed in clashes between the Muslim Hui minority and the Han majority.
“There are more than 10 Hui Muslims who died and more than 10 Han died,” said an employee surnamed Wang from a taxi company in Zhongmou county, where the clashes occurred.
The New York Times reported that almost 150 people were killed but residents sought to play down the figure.
An official surnamed Chen with the Henan Religious Affairs Bureau told AFP: “Officials have been sent there to try and calm down the two sides. When the clash erupted, the situation was intense.”
Journalists in the region said a news blackout was in force.
“They are afraid to trigger conflict among the ethnic groups,” said a journalist with Henan Daily. China’s Huis are descendants of Arab and Persian traders. Over the centuries they have mixed so thoroughly with the Han Chinese that they are indistinguishable from each other but for religion, customs and dress codes.
Residents told AFP violence between Huis and Hans erupted last week after Hui truck drivers from the Hui populated Nanren village tried to pass through a village mostly inhabited by Han Chinese and a Hui was beaten up over a traffic dispute.
Villagers from both sides fought each other with farm tools, they said.
The government late yesterday confirmed a violent clash occurred. Seven people were killed, 42 injured and 18 arrested, the official Xinhua news agency said.
The clash began on Oct. 27 and continued until Sunday but was now under control, Xinhua said.
It said violence erupted when a villager surnamed Lu from Nanren village fought with a man surnamed Liu from Nanwei village over a traffic dispute.
Lu and several Nanren villagers later went to Liu’s home and assaulted him and his family, Xinhua said.
Afterward, residents of both villages assembled weapons and fought each other. One villager was beaten to death on the spot and two died in hospital a day later, Xinhua said. Of the 42 injured, 19 have been released from hospital, it said. Xinhua did not say the clash was between the Huis and the Hans.
Wang, the taxi company employee, said the violence last week was the worst in memory.
“Clashes have happened frequently before but this is the worst,” he said. “The two groups used farm tools to fight each other.”
The area remained tense and under military blockade yesterday, teeming with hundreds of police and paramilitary soldiers.
Four foreign journalists who entered the area were detained, and police lining the roads stopped several other reporters from entering. Busloads of armed police in riot gear went into the area.
An imam with Nanren village’s mosque said two Huis died in the village and four or five Hans were also killed.
