Some Africa Students May Be Charged in China Brawl : Majority of Those Held in Wake of Clash Reportedly Are Free to Leave; Protest Held in Nanjing for 6th Day

A group of mostly African foreign students being held in isolation at a suburban guest house includes some who are under detention and may face criminal charges arising out of a Christmas Eve campus brawl, Chinese officials said Thursday.

But the vast majority of the approximately 140 students at the guest house are free to return to their campuses whenever they wish, according to Huang Jie, a spokesman for the Jiangsu provincial government. But even these students are not free to travel directly from the guest house to Beijing, as many have demanded, he added.

“We hope we can settle this in Nanjing,” Huang said.

Students Promised Safety

Huang and other officials said they could guarantee the safety of any African students who do return to campuses. But in the sixth day of disturbances, about 800 Chinese students took to the streets again Thursday evening to demand rapid punishment of African students alleged by Chinese authorities to have attacked and injured 11 Chinese in the Christmas Eve party at Hehai University. Two Africans were also officially reported to have been injured in the clash, which began after African men were blocked from taking Chinese women to a dance.

Thursday’s protest culminated in a half-hour late evening march by about 300 students down the traffic lanes of a major thoroughfare. About 100 police eventually blocked their progress and gradually dispersed the crowd.

The foreign students in the guest house, meanwhile, remained virtually incommunicado. They include more than 100 Africans and a few dark-skinned Asians, all of whom fear racial violence. There are also about eight Europeans and four Japanese who have stayed with the group out of solidarity, according to Americans who were with the group but then left. The Americans have been key sources of information about what has occurred inside.

Taken to Guest House

The students were taken to the guest house Monday evening after weekend rock-throwing attacks by Chinese students on dormitories housing African students. Since then, they have found it almost impossible to telephone out.

Reporters who arrived at the gates of the guest house compound Thursday morning were denied entrance, and requests to speak with some of the students were refused.

But one African student, Bourhane, 23, a French-speaking Muslim from the Comoros Islands, returned to the campus of Nanjing Polytechnic University on Wednesday and spoke with reporters Thursday with the curtains in his room drawn to prevent people outside from seeing him.

Bourhane said he had returned because he had to make urgent telephone calls and could not do so from the guest house. He said he feared for his life and wanted to leave China as soon as possible but for now was hiding in his dormitory.

“I won’t leave this building,” he said. “Even seeing a Chinese outside the window makes me cold with fright.”

Newspaper Appeals for Calm

An official city-run newspaper, the Xinhua Daily, issued an appeal for calm Thursday morning in a front-page editorial. In a companion article, the newspaper printed an explicit denial of a widely believed rumor that a Chinese man had been killed in the Saturday night clash--a rumor that has been a major motivating factor for Chinese students who engaged in anti-African rioting Sunday and in demonstrations this week.

“I can definitely tell everyone, no one was beaten to death,” said an unnamed official quoted in the article. “One person was seriously injured. He was a man working in the security department of the university, called Zhang Jitao, who is now undergoing treatment.” The official promised that the incident would be dealt with according to law. He said the demands of the students are just and their feelings are understandable.

“But we do not approve of demonstrations as a means,” the official said. “They will not help solve the problem, only increase the troubles and difficulties.”

Liang Ruiju, president of Hehai University, in an interview Thursday with Western reporters, placed the entire blame for the incident on about seven or eight African students who had been leading protests against construction of a wall around the foreign students’ dormitory.

Calls Wall Necessary

Liang said the wall was necessary to provide better security for the dormitory and to prevent the African students from bringing Chinese prostitutes into their rooms.

Liang alleged that the Christmas Eve incident was created by “basically the same” seven or eight people who had physically taken over the school’s financial office during protests concerning the wall.

“Of course we know who they are,” Liang said. “But at present we are still investigating the case. If they have done something against the law, we will take the case to court.”

African students at the guest house, according to American students who were present, have alleged that the Christmas Eve clash was instigated by school authorities in order to punish particular African students they perceived as troublemakers.