31 Tewas Akibat Ledakan di Urumqi, China
31 People Killed as Tension Between Han Chinese and Ethnic Uigurs
Editor : Ismail Gani
Translator : Novita Cahyadi
Beijing (B2B) - Sebuah bom meledak di Urumqi, Ibu Kota provinsi Xinjiang yang sedang bergolak di Tiongkok, pada Kamis.
Sejumlah gambar yang diunggah di media sosial Weibo menunjukkan kebakaran dan asap membumbung di atas kios-kios pasar. Dalam berita singkatnya, Xinhua menulis bahwa ledakan terjadi di dekat taman kota dan belum diketahui jumlah korban.
"Terjadi sejumlah ledakan kuat di pasar pagi dekat Istana Kebudayaan Urumqi," tulis salah seorang pengguna Weibo yang mengaku berada di dekat lokasi saat kejadian berlangsung, seperti dilansir Yahoo News.
"Saya melihat api dan asap. Sejumlah kendaraan dan barang-barang terbakar sementara pemilik berlarian meninggalkan hartanya," tulis dia.
Xinjiang yang terletak di bagian barat Tiongkok pada beberapa bulan terakhir memang terus dilanda kerusuhan sosial. Pemerintah di Beijing mengatakan bahwa kekerasan di tempat tersebut dilakukan oleh gerakan separatis yang didorong oleh pandangan relijius garis keras.
Xinjiang adalah tempat tinggal sebagian besar warga Muslim Uighurs.
Sementara itu sejumlah pengamat mengatakan bahwa Beijing terlalu membesar-besarkan ancaman keamanan di Xinjiang untuk membenarkan kebijakan militeristiknya. Menurut mereka, kesenjangan ekonomi dan represi kebudayaan adalah penyebab utama kerusuhan sosial di tempat itu.
Sebelumnya pada 30 April lalu, saat Presiden Xi Jinping mengunjungi provinsi tersebut, sejumlah orang bersenjatakan pedang dan bom menyerang stasiun kereta api Urumqi. Tindakan mereka menewaskan satu orang dan melukai 79 lainnya. Dua di antara penyerang juga kehilangan nyawa.
Menurut kantor berita Xinhua, serangan tersebut direncanakan oleh seseorang yang berada di luar negeri. Delapan hari sebelum kejadian, sang perencana tersebut kemudian meminta 10 orang untuk membuat bom dan memilih target.
Pada Maret, sejumlah orang tiba-tiba menusuk para pengunjung stasiun kereta api Kunming, menewaskan 29 orang dan melukai 193 orang. Peristiwa tersebut dikenal sebagai "9/11 versi Tiongkok".
Pada 2009, kerusuhan etnis juga merebak di Urumqi antara Uighurs melawan mayoritas Han. Sebanyak 200 orang kehilangan nyawa. Tiongkok sendiri menanggapi rangkaian kekerasan tersebut dengan memperketat keamanan di sejumlah jalan.
Sejumlah kelompok pembela hak asasi manusia mengatakan ketegangan di Xinjiang dipicu oleh opresi kultural, represi aparat keamanan, dan imigrasi oleh suku Han yang kemudian yang kemudian mendapat keuntungan oleh kebijakan ekonomi diskriminatif.
Beijing membantah hal tersebut dan mengklaim bahwa kebijakan di Xinjiang telah membawa provinsi tersebut lebih sejahtera.
Beijing - An explosion on Thursday hit Urumqi, capital of the restive Chinese region of Xinjiang which is home to mostly Uighurs, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
An unknown number of people have been killed and injured in the blastwhich occurred near a park in the city, the agency said in a short dispatch.
Pictures posted on Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter, showed flames on a tree-lined road, and smoke billowing over market stalls behind a police roadblock.
"There were multiple strong explosions in the morning market at the Cultural Palace in Urumqi," wrote one netizen, who said he was less than 100 metres from the scene.
"I saw flames and heavy smoke as vehicles and goods were on fire while vendors escaped leaving their goods behind."
The vast, resource-rich far-western region has seen periodic violence which has increased and sometimes spread beyond it in recent months.
Beijing says it faces terrorism from a violent separatist movement there, driven by religious extremism and foreign groups.
Critics say the security threat in Xinjiang is exaggerated by Beijing to justify hardline measures, and instead point to economic inequality and cultural and religious repression of Uighurs as causes of unrest.
On April 30, the final day of a visit by President Xi Jinping to the region, assailants armed with knives and explosives carried out an attack at a railway station in Urumqi, killing one person and wounding 79. Two attackers also died.
The main plotter had formulated plans from abroad, then eight days before the incident ordered 10 people to make an explosive device and choose a target, Xinhua said in a later report.
In March attackers went on a stabbing spree at a railway station in the southwestern city of Kunming, killing 29 people and wounding 143 in an incident dubbed "China's 9/11" by state media. Four of the assailants were shot dead by police.
In 2009 ethnic riots erupted in Urumqi between Uighurs and the country's majority Han Chinese, leaving 200 people dead and prompting a security crackdown.
China has dramatically increased the number of armed patrols on its streets in response to the spate of violent incidents.
Rights groups say the tensions in Xinjiang are driven by cultural oppression, intrusive security measures and immigration by majority Han Chinese which have led to decades of discrimination and economic inequality. Beijing claims that its policies in the region have brought prosperity and higher living standards.
