In that barbaric violence that ravaged Urumqi, two Uygur workers sheltered 22 Han compatriots at their hostel from the ferocious mobs on the night of July 5.
"We would risk our lives to save our Han brothers under those circumstances," one of them said.
A 38-year-old Uygur man and 30 of his neighbors, all Uygur, saved 40 Han people who were being chased by weapon-wielding rioters but had nowhere to hide. Their courtyards became a safe haven for the Han victims. Every fleeing Han was ushered in, and the mob in hot pursuit shut out.
Han resident Zhao Shushen and his relatives were lucky to run into their Uygur saviour. To save the Han strangers, he himself suffered attacks. When the desperate Zhao urged him to escape, the man replied: "It is nothing. We are one family."
He finally managed to help the seriously injured Zhao and others into a makeshift shelter, and took care of them until they were safe enough to be on their own.
Sixteen-year-old Wang Mingya, a Han, is full of gratitude to a group of youngsters about his age, who stopped the mob from attacking him. He only knows they were Uygur. "I might have died were it not for the young Uygurs," he recalled.
That night, numerous ordinary Uygur citizens of Urumqi extended a life-saving hand to compatriots who were in harm's way. Some of those saved know their saviours' names. Others do not.
To all those who came to the rescue of the unfortunate victims, or even attempted to assist them, we extend our heart-felt gratitude, and hold them in the highest esteem. Their noble deeds lent a touch of humane warmth to that otherwise frightening night. For those innocent citizens fleeing for their lives, the sanctuaries they had provided were lifelines in a maze of death.
In those dark hours of July 5, they offered hope for the otherwise hopeless. In the days after, they will serve as invaluable sources of goodwill between the Uygur and Han communities now more or less estranged by misunderstanding.
Some people want to see the Uygur and Han people pitted against each other. But we saw the very opposite in the heart-warming episodes in that nightmarish bloodbath.
Just like what a Uygur retiree told the two Han workers he had saved from the streets, those ruthless, murderous lot were "only a small number who do not represent all Uygurs".
We urge all non-Uygur residents of Urumqi, and beyond, to take serious note of such stories, and rethink their perceptions of the July 5 tragedy. All of us should be grateful to the kind and brave Uygur compatriots who showed sympathy for the innocent victims.
Together the different communities of Urumqi have gone through the darkest moments in the city's recent history. It would be sad if they fell out in the grip of biases and external incitement.
(China Daily July 14, 2009)
