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One month on, traumatized Xinjiang recovering with difficulty

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-08-06 08:22

HEALING THE WOUND

One month is long enough for many people to recover physically, but too short to heal the wounds in their hearts.

Yang Zengli's head was injured in the riot and he had nine stitches inserted.
Touching his head - which still hurts every now and then - he said the scene where his wife, daughter and mother were chased and beaten still haunted his mind.

"One of my wife's sisters was killed, another was blinded," he said bitterly.
His wife, daughter and mother were injured, but are alive.

"If they had died, I would have gone with them, " he said.

Wang Liping, who was born and grew up in Xinjiang, said she had many Uygur friends and had been on good terms with the Uygurs before the riot.

"They still cared about me and prayed for me while I came to look for my son," she said, gratefully. "I don't understand why this happened."

"How I hope we could return to the harmony that we used to enjoy," she said.

Her aspiration was echoed by many Uygurs as well. Roxingul had a clothes stall in the Big Bazaar,which had been closed for half a month before reopening. The girl suffered great financial loss and for several days had no customers at all.

"But now it's becoming better and more customers are coming," she said.

Knowing her losses, many visitors from other parts of the country don't bargain with her while buying, comforting and encouraging her to believe tomorrow will be better.

Aynur Tursun, a doctor at the People's Hospital of the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, said: "After the riot, I found it hard to call a taxi in the street." A kind Han driver finally stopped for her. In the car, he asked her how she hadn't been scarred mentally by the riot.

"I told him that I had been playing with Han friends since childhood and had a deep understanding and feeling for the Hans," she said emotionally.

"Anyone with a conscience does not want these things to happen and the rioters will sooner or later be punished."

At first, the driver was inhospitable to her, but they said goodbye when the doctor arrived at her destination. Tursun believed she untied a knot
in the driver's heart.

"There are definitely more knots to be untied, and time may heal the wounds," she said.

Dimurat Wanir, dean of the College of Humanities at the Xinjiang Normal University, said the riot's effect was very bad and far-reaching. But he was optimistic. "After all, most ordinary people long for peace,stability and prosperity."

The Urumqi museum is staging a photo exhibition entitled "We are a Family", showing pictures telling stories of people from different ethnic groups helping each other during the riot.

"The friendship between Hans and Uygurs has lasted for years," said a visitor to the exhibition, Li Xiaoxia. "It is not so easy to destroy it."

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