Dong Yuanyuan was brutally beaten by rioters in Urumqi on Sunday July 5. She was married just three days before, on July 2, and has had no news of her husband since the attack. [China.org.cn]

24-year-old Dong Yuanyuan had been married for just 3 days when she and her husband were attacked by rioters in Urumqi on Sunday July 5. She should be spending the happiest week of her life on honeymoon in Shanghai, but instead she is lying badly injured in Urumqi's People's Hospital.

She last saw her husband just before she was beaten unconscious, and she has no idea if he is alive or dead. She can only pray that he survived; perhaps, like her, being treated in an intensive care unit.

Dong described how the bus they were traveling on was brought to a halt by a hail of stones. The driver told the passengers to get off and run for their lives, but the couple soon found themselves surrounded.

Dong said their attackers were from the Uygur ethnic group. Because she was born in Xinjiang and lived in her home town of Yili until the age of 19, she was able to stall them with a few words of Uyghur. But once they realized she was from China's majority Han ethnic group, they began to beat her mercilessly. She has no doubt she was attacked simply because of her ethnic background.

A Uygur woman saved Dong's life by picking her up and hiding her in a room above a nearby shop. Dong watched, terrified, from the upstairs window as the bus she had been traveling on was set on fire.

Ma Weihong's 6-year-old son was with her when she was attacked by rioters in Urumqi on Sunday July 5. Ma's husband sits silently at her bedside, unable to take in what has happened to his family. [China.org.cn]

Although Ma Weihong's six year old son is not old enough to grasp just how serious his mother's injuries are, he has clearly been traumatized. Alternately playful and close to tears, it was heart-rending to see him posing for the press cameras.

Ma was attacked by a group of rioters as she was shopping for the family supper. She was kicked to the ground, then beaten and stabbed by five or six men. Her teeth were broken and her face is swollen to twice its normal size, but she is mainly thankful that the rioters spared her son.

Ma's husband sits in shocked silence by her bedside, seemingly unable to come to terms with what has happened to his family.

Dr. Yuan Hong has worked in Urumqi's People's Hospital for 27 years. When victims from Sunday's riots began to arrive at the hospital, he was horrified by injuries they had suffered. He still cannot come to terms with the senseless violence of the past few days. [China.org.cn]

Dr. Yuan Hong, head of the Intensive Care Department, has worked in Urumqi's People's Hospital for 27 years. He told us that when victims from Sunday's riots began to arrive at the hospital, staff of all ethnic groups, whether Kazakh, Uygur or Han, pulled together and worked as a team as usual. Dr. Yuan said he was utterly shocked by Sunday's events and still cannot quite believe what happened. 

(China.org.cn July 9, 2009)