Urumqi: People in restive Xinjiang province on Sunday demanded further action after the sacking of two top officials over syringe attacks in the region's capital Urumqi that sparked deadly protests.
Li Zhi, Communist Party chief of Urumqi and Liu Yaohua, the region's top police official, were dismissed on Saturday in the wake of the protests that left five people dead.
But amid continuing tight security, people in the capital said the sackings were not enough.
"They (the sackings) will have a small impact but this is not really what we wanted," said Du Xuelian, a clerk in a shop selling eyeglasses in Urumqi.
"We want them to solve these problems. Changing officials isn't really the answer."
The owner of another glasses shop, Liu Jialong, was a little more optimistic.
"This will definitely have an impact, but long term, to solve all these problems, it's going to take a lot of time and a lot of effort," he said.
"We hope the new officials will have greater resolve in handling these affairs."
The protests in Urumqi began on Wednesday with angry citizens demanding the government act to stop a spate of mysterious syringe attacks, just under two months after ethnic riots in the city left nearly 200 mostly Han Chinese dead.
Calm only returned to the city on Saturday.
Thousands of armed police were spread out in Urumqi on Sunday as life slowly returned to normal, with pedestrians and traffic back on the streets.
More than 530 people had gone to hospital after being stabbed with syringes in Urumqi in the past few weeks, official media said, and authorities stressed that both Han and members of the Uighur minority were victims of the attacks.
China has arrested four people in connection with the stabbings, and four others are to be criminally prosecuted.
A panel of medical specialists told reporters on Saturday it had examined the records of 217 victims and that so far there was no evidence they had contracted diseases related to radioactive substances, anthrax, hepatitis B or AIDS.
Urumqi city prosecutor Udgar Abdulrahman told journalists that in one case, a 47-year-old Uighur man assaulted police with a syringe containing heroin.
In another case, two drug addicts -- a Uighur man and woman -- threatened a taxi driver with a syringe and robbed him, before being arrested.
Bureau Report
First Published: Sunday, September 06, 2009, 12:05