China’s Uighur problem boiled over on Sunday in a wave of violence that left at least 156 people dead and more than 800 people hurt in Xinjiang province’s capital of Urumqui.
State TV showed gruesome images of protesters attacking ethnic Chinese, kicking men and women on the ground and leaving them dazed and bloodied. Uighurs have accused the Chinese security forces of overreacting to peaceful demonstrations.
The Chinese authorities responded with a regionwide crackdown. On Monday in Xinjiang, police dispersed a group of 200 “rioters” gathered outside a mosque in Kashgar.
The State Department urged an end to the violence.
"We deeply regret the loss of life" in Urumqui, State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said. "We call on all sides for calm and restraint."
The Uighurs are a Muslim minority in China, but are the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang, an area about the size of Alaska. They constitute roughly half of the province’s 20 million inhabitants, but large numbers of Han Chinese have migrated to the capital of Urumqui, causing constant tension.
The Uighurs are separatists labeled by Beijing as terrorists. The Chinese government blamed the unrest on expatriate Rebiya Kadeer, head of the World Uyghur Congress now living in the U.S.
“Rebiya had phone conversations with people in China on July 5 in order to incite, and Web sites ... were used to orchestrate the incitement and spread propaganda,” Xinjiang Gov. Nur Bekri said on television early Monday.
The government successfully blocked or slowed all Internet access in the region to prevent protesters from organizing.
Xinjiang’s top Communist Party official, Wang Lequan, called the riots “a profound lesson learned in blood.”
“We must tear away Rebiya’s mask and let the world see her true nature,” Wang said.
Kadeer has denied fomenting unrest and has called for nonviolent protest.
Last month, a group of Uighurs who had been classified as enemy combatants were released from Guantanamo Bay and relocated to Bermuda.
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/us_world/2009/07/06/2009-07-06_156_killed_hundreds_hurt_as_uighurs_clash_with_chinese_in_xinjiang.html
