The incident began in the evening of 5 July 2009 as a peaceful protest led by Uyghur youth
[e_m] they were demanding justice for the brutal murder of two Uyghur workers at a toy factory in Shaoguan city in Guangdong province.
The murders had apparently transpired during a violent clash where Han workers ambushed sleeping Uyghur workers in their dormitory after rumors had spread on the internet that Uyghur male workers had raped a Han woman.
[ q ] This incident in Guangdong was also clearly linked to state development policies since the Uyghurs in teh factory were presumably working there under one of the state-promoted work programs for Uyghurs in inner China that had been developed in the early 2000s.
The protest was substantial and unusual for Xinjiang
[e_c] Such public expressions of discontent are severly punished.
[e_c] The protestors who organized were Uyghurs who had chosen paths of integration into the PRC and were placing faith in the CCP to apply justice for the incident in Guangdong.
[ s ] Videos of the initial protest showed what appeared to be Uyghur university students carrying PRC flags and signs in Chinese at the front of the march, appealing to authorities on the basis of their status as citizens of China, not merely as Uyghurs.
How the protest became violent is unknown.
[ s ] Chinese authorities suggested the violence was premeditated and orchestrated by WUC leader Rabiya Kadeer from abroad.
[ s ] Most other reports suggest the violence was a spontaneous response to security forces’ aggressive attempts to stop the marchers from advancing, quickly spreading beyond the protestors to include Uyghur bystanders unleashing their anger at the state and Han.
The violence was raw and intense.
Uyghurs throughout the city set vehicles on fire, destroyed stores and began attacking Han civilians, leaving a reported 156 people dead.
[r_i] This shows how tense relations between Uyghurs and Han had become.
The next morning, a thousand Han vigilantes responded by attacking Uyghurs themselves.
Violence continued for two days after initial riots broke out.