South China toy factory brawl victims in stable conditions: doctors
All the Xinjiang Uygur workers injured in a toy factory brawl in south China's Guangdong Province were in stable conditions, doctors said Monday.
Among the 60 injured workers from Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, 29 have been discharged from hospital and a dozen others had recovered, said Fan Shiping, a doctor at Yuebei People's Hospital in Shaoguan City.
"The rest who were being treated and are in stable conditions," he said. "We are getting along with the patients very well."
"I'll continue to work in Shaoguan after I recover," said Ebeyjan Ahmad from Shufu County in Xinjiang. His arms and head were hurt in the fight.
"As long as I'm safe here, I'd like to stay," he said. "I have made phone calls to my family so that they won't be worried about me."
Doctors celebrated the birthday of the 18-year-old Kurbanjan Abdulla in the hospital. He was presented with a birthday cake and received good wishes from the patients.
The government of Shaoguan and the factory are trying their best to help Uygur workers go back to work as soon as possible, officials said.
The alleged sexual assault on a female Han worker Huang Cuiling by several Uygur co-workers at 11 p.m. on June 25 triggered the fight between Uygur and Han ethnic workers in the Xuri toy factory in the early morning on June 26, said Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, at the press conference on Monday.
Two Uygur workers died in the fight. Their deaths were used as an excuse for the riot in the regional capital Urumqi, which Bekri said was masterminded by the forces of terrorism and separatism.
In the early hours of Sunday, the Urumqi police department got a tip-off that there were calls on Internet forums for demonstrations.
The riot began around 8 p.m., when rioters started beating pedestrians and smashing up buses. The violence soon spread to other downtown areas.
At least 140 people had died and more than 800 were injured in the riot, the regional government said Monday.