melissa chan of al jazeera english is there. >> reporter: they don't know what's happened to all the. the police just came, they tell us, and took them away during the night. part of the over thousand uighurs arrested by chinese authorities. we want them free. we want them free. we want them free. over and over again, they tell us, this is all they want. this woman shows us her husband's identification card. she has no idea where he is. its neighborhood clearly feeling the consequences of the rioting from sunday night. and suddenly the sadness took a more aggressive and violent tone. this government organized trip for foreign journalists, suddenly gone terribly off message. armed policewith guns and electric cattle prods. soldiers with shields and sticks moving in to contain the chaos. >> go, go, go, go, go. >> reporter: these are complicated ethnic tensions. china's western-most province populated by these turkic uighurs, but it's han chinese who run the government. some uighurs are separatists but others are angry over what they feel as their second-class treatment in this country.

and it didn't stop there, as we hear from melissa chan of al jazeera english. >> reporter: the center is an organization that helps people fight discrimination in china. its operated for years. but wednesday on, the authorities showed up, unannounced, to collect evidence and investigate supposed illegal activities. the problem? the publication of the office's newsletter. it has apparently not been cleared by the government. >> translator: i suspect our antidiscrimination activities have offended many people including big operations, common officials and wealthy businessmen. >> reporter: it's the latest blow to the handful of organizations in china that push for social change and justice. here at the center, they fight discrimination against women, gays and hiv carriers. across town, another organization under fire. is a legal aid office specializing on human rights issues. last week, police marched in to confiscate most of the computers and office equipment. many of the attorneys here have had their licenses revoked over the last few months because of their work. >> translator: the fi