WASHINGTON, Feb. 25-Hundreds of ethnic Uyghurs, mostly Chinese citizens, are homeless and penniless after a suspicious fire swept through the open-air market where they lived and worked in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Radio Free Asia's (RFA) Uyghur service reported. According to Uyghur traders working at Bishkek's Tour-Bazaar, unidentified thugs set the fire Feb. 12 after robbing several stalls, RFA reported. The fire, which appears to have started in three separate locations, spread quickly, destroying the market's more than 500 commercial booths, witnesses said. No deaths or serious injuries were reported. "A fire at the market doesn't (usually) burn like this," Iresbek Kadiraliyev, director of the Tour-Bazaar, said in an interview. "Usually, half of it burns down and the other half should be pretty safe. Something is very wrong�. Many businessmen have lost everything and are now left out in the cold." The Tour-Bazaar has emerged as a major commercial enterprise in Bishkek. It is largely operated by ethnic Uyghurs from China who support themselves by selling Chinese-made goods. Roughly 2,000 people work at the Tour-Bazaar, and many live and sleep on the premises as well. "I have seen the burned market and everything is just gone. I have taken photos of the scene and also collected additional materials," said Tursun Islam, director of the nonprofit Bishkek Uyghur Democracy Center, which promotes Uyghur rights in Kyrgyzstan. "Some people say the market caught fire because of electrical sparks.... Some suspect it was arson." Several Uyghur traders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, accused Kyrgyz authorities of turning a blind eye as local thugs plundered the burning market stalls and firefighters demanded money before trying to stop the blaze. The municipal police chief, who identified himself as Soranchyev, denied any wrongdoing by police officers or firefighters and said some 800 police had moved in quickly to try to douse the fire. Between 30,000 and 40,000 Uyghurs with Kyrgyz citizenship live in Bishkek. Several thousand more with Chinese citizenship live and work legally there, many of them in the Tour-Bazaar. Uyghurs constitute a distinct, Turkic-speaking, Moslem minority in northwestern China and Central Asia. They declared a short-lived East Turkestan Republic in China's Xinjiang region in the late 1940s but have remained under Beijing�s control since 1949. Radio Free Asia (RFA) is a private, nonprofit corporation broadcasting news and information to listeners in those Asian countries where full, accurate, and timely news reports are unavailable. Created by Congress in 1994 and incorporated in 1996, RFA aims to deliver such news reports-along with opinions and commentaries-and to provide a forum for a variety of voices and opinions. RFA currently broadcasts in Burmese, Cantonese, Khmer, Korean, Lao, Mandarin, the Wu dialect, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and Uyghur. It adheres to the highest journalistic standards and aims to exemplify accuracy, balance, and fairness in its editorial content.
