Strong winds help spread the blaze, leaving seven dead and eight injured in Karamay, sources say.<\/p>\n
2015-03-27<\/p>\n
Around 55 homes in a Uyghur neighborhood marked for construction of a housing project were destroyed by fire on Wednesday, leaving seven dead and eight in hospital with severe burns, sources said.<\/p>\n
The fire, helped by gale-force winds, spread quickly on March 25 through the Kassaphana section of Karamay city in northwestern China\u2019s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, and burned only the houses of Uyghur families who had been ordered evicted, one source told RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is strange that only those houses marked for eviction were burned,\u201d the man said, speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt must be God\u2019s will,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Even though he and others in the neighborhood had been told to leave their homes to make way for development in the area, \u201cno compensation was offered for the loss of our property,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were also never told where we might go to live,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now, we do not know what is awaiting us.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe cannot go back to our houses, because the neighborhood has been blocked off by police,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Power cut off<\/b><\/p>\n
Power to the neighborhood had been cut off shortly after the wind gained strength, RFA\u2019s source said, adding that this made it unlikely that an electric short or spark had started the blaze.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t know how the fire was started,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Six of the seven who were killed\u2014a mother and five children\u2014had come from one family, with the family\u2019s father now burned over 97 percent of his body, he said.<\/p>\n
Eight altogether had been taken to hospital following the fire, another source said, also speaking on condition of anonymity.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome there were heavily burned,\u201d she said. \u201cSeveral Uyghurs here in Karamay city (Kelamayi, in Chinese) have donated food and money to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reached for comment, an official at the Karamay Central Hospital denied any knowledge of the fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no injured people here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Donations banned<\/b><\/p>\n
Another Uyghur source said that he and others had also tried to collect donations, but that authorities had told them to stop.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been told they are not allowing the distribution of any private donations to the victims,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The neighborhood that burned had been settled \u201cmainly by Uyghurs coming from other parts of the region,\u201d a Uyghur woman living in Karamay said, adding that those who lost their homes were being sheltered in Karamay\u2019s Number 11 Elementary School.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am with them here right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Land-grabs by Chinese firms in Xinjiang have heightened ethnic tensions in the region, where the mostly Muslim, Turkic-speaking Uyghurs accuse Han Chinese of displacing them from their traditional homeland and depriving them of economic opportunities under strict rule by Beijing.<\/p>\n
Reported by Gulchehre Abdukeyum and Ehsan for RFA\u2019s Uyghur Service. Translated by Mamatjan Juma. Written in English by Richard Finney.<\/b><\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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