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Anxious families look for relatives missing in Urumqi riot

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-10 02:29

"We tried to look for my brother at all hospitals from that night to the next morning except the intensive care unit wards, which can't be accessed without authorization," Yu said, "but still we can't find him."

Searching every possible place, including the funeral home and criminal police unit, for Yu Hai, the young couple failed again.

"Our only hope was that my brother was being treated in the ICU wards," Yu cried again.

"My elder brother was 34 and he could see his baby in four months," Yu said, wiping tears off his eyes. "How can we tell our pregnant sister-in-law about this?"

The ring inside his wife's bag interrupted Yu's narration.

Overturning her bag for a while, Tong found and answered the black mobile phone left behind by her deceased brother-in-law.

"Hello, he is no longer here," Tong told the phone, trying hard to speak in normal tone.

Silence.

"Who is this?" Tong asked, then said. "He was murdered." Then her mood collapsed and covered her face with her hands.

As of Thursday noon, more than 1,000 families members had resorted to the working team to find their missing relatives.

Although she had personally gone through that nightmare, four-year-old Zou Liyang can't understand what has happened to her family.

"My dad has gone out to make money, so has my mom," said Zou in a pure face. "My grandparents have visited relatives."

The truth is, her parents and grandparents were all beaten to death by rioters on Sunday. Her elder brother was in an ICU ward.

Her memory about that night was "the rascals smashed the windows of my father's car and I was very afraid."

Wang Zewu, Zou's uncle, touched her head, struggling to remain calm.

"She was saved by an unknown Uygur man in red T-shirt," Wang said in a low voice, holding tight a piece of paper written with his brother-in-law's car plate number.

"We went to all hospitals in Urumqi and found my 16-year-old nephew at an ICU ward in No.3 Hospital," he said. "We can't find the four others of their family - my sister, my brother-in-law and their parents."

On Tuesday, Wang reported the missing of the Zous to the working team handling the aftermath of the riot. Two days later, he finally saw the slain photos of four members of his sister's family.

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