in the wrong place, in the wrong time. a sad (love)story from China's riot area

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...hopefully with an happy ending too.

"Dong Yuanyuan should be on honeymoon, sightseeing in Shanghai with her husband. But late last Sunday night, their bus stopped when a set of traffic lights in Urumqi turned red.

A few seconds earlier and the newlyweds might have escaped the ethnic riot sweeping the city. Instead, the hail of rocks and sticks that crashed down on them began an ordeal that would leave the 24-year-old teacher with injuries to her head, neck, arms and legs – and without her husband."

as she flew the bus during the riot, she was caught bu uighur men who beat and punched her, as they took her for a han.
after she was moved to a safe place, she asked about her husband but no one was available to go out and seek him, due to fear.
now the parents have found an unconscious patient in a hospital, and it might be Liang He, 29. but she will have to go to see herself, as soon as the hospital releases her.

one thing struck me in her story.

"When I was young, many Uighurs were my neighbours and classmates. Nothing like this ever happened. We've had very good relations," said Dong. "Now my Han female friends and I feel a bit scared when we see Uighur men because we were all hurt by them. I'll still be nice to the friends I know well, but I may feel scared by strange Uighur men."

this brought me back to the ex-jugoslavia wars, fought not many miles away from my balcony here, right across the adriatic sea.
memory back to the ethnic war, to the stories told by women, about the unbelievable violence pouring forth from hands and eyes (and in that sad case even raping sexes) of men who had been neighbors or friends.

the sudden metamorphosis of men turning to fiends, in the name of whatever - whatever is the name.
and the chinese girl with her husband just found herself in the middle of it, in the wrong place and in the wrong time.

now she wants her husband back, dead or alive. just a story among thousands.

source: The Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/11/urumqi-uighur-violence-victim-story

ciao DUers.