* This post will be updated as I hear more news. I’m not in Ürümqi myself so all I write is alleged by friends that I am currently in touch with. // Newswire services have started picking up on the story and the situation seems to have quieted down for now. It’s past midnight in Ürümqi, I won’t continue to post new information here. The New Dominion also has a good digest of information.

Protests and rioting of Uyghurs targetting Hans are taking place in Ürümqi – I speculate that this may also be happening elsewhere in Xinjiang. This is also what I’ve just heard from contacts in Ürümqi. Especially the south of Xinjiang seems to be affected.

I’ve heard from friends that there have been blasts and lots of black smoke in residency compounds. Further news seems to indicate that the army has stepped in. Friends have reportedly heard gunfire.

Riots seems to concentrate on Renmin Guangchang (People’s Square), Zhongshan lu, Nanmen, Erdaoqiao (Jiefang nanlu) and Yan’an lu.

Mobile phone coverage is down in Ürümqi. This has been confirmed by a friend.

(The picture posted here earlier was not from Ürümqi, but from the recent riots in Shaoguan, Guangdong)

There are currently lots of useful media to be found here.

Several videos have leaked out onto the internet. (The latter has been taken down.)

Twitter is a useful tool, news seems to gather in the #urumqi and #xinjiang channels.

Taken from Twitter:

“Urumqi witness: 100s of riot police/soldiers in APCs, trucks, buses have blocked off main streets, rounded up Uighur…”

“Xinjiang” and “Urumqi” forums on Baidu shut down

An internet crackdown seems likely and is allegedly already underway.

Are these planned riots, or did they break out quasi-coincidentally? It’s been alleged that they are related to the recent riots between Han and Uyghur people, and the killing of two Uyghur men, in Guangdong province.

These stories and images put a cryptic message I received about two hours ago in a very different light indeed. My own feeling is that these riots weren’t completely off the cuff but probably picked up momentum as time went by.

See also:

• China’s Xinjiang hit by violence
• People gather in Urumqi, attack passers-by and burn vehicles
• Riots is Urumchi
• Riot strikes China’s Xinjiang region capital
• Violence erupts in China’s Xinjiang region; 2 killed

“Hard to be a farmer in Yengisar” are words from Just a plain farmer, by Hakim Siyit.

It’s a fascinating story, that of Hakim Siyit, Uyghur farmer from Yengisar, a place near Kashgar. I visited it in 2007. Wronged by the local government, he recorded his plight, and the plight of other farmers, on video. Tape in hand, Hakim appealed to the local, regional, provincial government. In the end he travels to Beijing and offers up his petition to state-level officials.

It is all to no avail, and Hakim eventually finds his way back to Yengisar. But the tape ends up in the hands of Radio Free Asia, which releases it on line.

The video was taken from the Radio Free Asia website.

You can find plenty of background to the story on other blogs, I won’t dissect it any further. But I agree with the article on The New Dominion. It is mightily important that this example of grass roots journalism, so little of which comes out of China’s west, gets all the attention it deserves.

• Uygur farmer produces media content to air grievances, The New Dominion
• Uyghur farmers appeal, to no avail, Radio Free Asia
• Hakim Siyit’s petition video in full, The New Dominion