BEIJING, Nov. 1 -- Government authorities declared martial law in a rural section of central China's Henan Province last week after four days of ethnic clashes there involving thousands of villagers left as many as a dozen people dead and many more injured, witnesses said Monday.
The fighting was between farmers of the country's ethnic Han majority and the Muslim Hui minority living in neighboring villages, as well as thousands of military police sent in to restore order. It appeared to be among the worst incidents of ethnic violence known to have taken place in China in recent years.
The latest unrest followed a clash this summer in a nearby village in which police fired rubber bullets at farmers protesting land seizures and anti-government rioting two weeks ago in the western city of Chongqing. The Henan fighting served as a stark reminder of the varied tensions tearing at this vast nation as it undergoes rapid social and economic change.
A local Muslim official, who asked not to be identified, said the violence began Wednesday after a traffic dispute involving Hui truck drivers and Han villagers in Weitan, a corn- and wheat-farming hamlet located about 400 miles southwest of Beijing outside Kaifeng, the ancient Song Dynasty capital of China.
The fighting soon spread to several nearby villages, where witnesses reached by telephone described large mobs looting, burning down homes and beating people in alternating raids by members of the two ethnic groups. As many as 10,000 anti-riot and military police began pouring into the area beginning Friday, but villagers clashed with them too, swinging iron bars and throwing bricks and stones, witnesses said.
The situation was exacerbated by the arrival of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Muslim Hui from other parts of China who rushed to the region to support their ethnic brethren. Military police set up checkpoints on local highways and, with the help of local imams, persuaded many of the outsiders to turn around and return home, the official said. But residents said some managed to elude the police and join the fighting.
China's state-run media reported nothing about the unrest, complying with a news blackout ordered by the ruling Communist Party's propaganda authorities to avoid further inflaming ethnic tensions, reporters said.
Provincial and county spokesmen and local police officials also refused to comment on the unrest.
One local journalist, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a government source told him nearly 150 people were killed in the rampages, including several police officers, a remarkable toll considering that guns are difficult to obtain in China and were not believed to have been used by the farmers.
But the journalist was unable to provide further details and local officials denied his account. Several residents, including village doctors who treated the wounded, were skeptical too, and said they knew of only about a dozen fatalities. They said many others suffered injuries, including several who were taken to county and provincial hospitals.
The party chief of one of the Hui villages involved in the violence, who gave only his surname, Ma, said about 10 people died in the clashes, but added that the Chinese military restored order to the region on Sunday.
"The upper-level party secretary said this case must be resolved quickly, seriously and strictly," he said. "Under the concern of upper-level officials, people in our village are calm now."
But both Hui and Han residents said the atmosphere remained tense despite the presence of the military police and orders barring people from entering or leaving local villages.
"The situation is very unstable," said the local Muslim official. "We have no feeling of safety. We want to find the culprits, but the provincial leaders say stability is more important and want us to keep working on calming the masses."
Du Pingfang, 40, a Hui doctor in Nanren village who treated several of the injured, said the Han villagers had threatened to kill all Hui residents over the age of three, and people remained frightened. "More than 5,000 soldiers have surrounded our village to protect us, but we're still worried that the Han will launch a surprise attack," he said.
Han residents also expressed fear, saying Hui were arriving in the region from across China. "Many police have been sent here to control the situation, but they can't stop the Hui from coming," said an elderly schoolteacher in Xilang village who said she fled and hid in the fields during much of the violence. She said "almost all adult villagers on both sides joined the fight."
Minivans with loudspeakers strapped to their roofs cruised through the region broadcasting appeals for calm, and similar messages were printed on posters stuck to buildings, the Associated Press reported from a nearby town.