China calls Xinjiang riot a plot against its rule

China calls Xinjiang riot a plot against its rule
Sun Jul 5, 2009 8:23pm EDT

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FACTBOX: China's restive Xinjiang region
8:23pm EDT

By Chris Buckley

BEIJING (Reuters) - China has called a riot that shook the capital of restive western Xinjiang region on Sunday a plot by exiled members of the Uighur people, after at least three people died in the latest eruption of ethnic unrest there.

Locals took to the streets of Xinjiang's regional capital, Urumqi, burning and smashing vehicles and confronting security forces, following a protest there to denounce government handling of a clash between Han Chinese and Uighur factory workers in far southern China in late June, when two Uighurs died.

On Monday morning "the situation was under control," the state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

But officials ordered traffic off the streets in parts of the city of 2.3 million residents -- 3,270 km (2,050 miles) west of Beijing -- to ensure there was no fresh unrest throughout the day, Xinhua added.

The Chinese government blamed the riot on exiled Uighur groups demanding independence from Beijing, which they say is stifling their culture and exploiting their homeland's resources.

"The facts demonstrate this was controlled and instigated from abroad," an unnamed leading official said of the riot, according to Xinhua, which also said the "unrest was masterminded by the World Uyghur Congress."

"This was a crime of violence that was pre-meditated and organized."

Representatives of exiled Uighur groups adamantly rejected the Chinese government claim of a plot, and said the riot was an outpouring of pent-up anger over government policies and Han Chinese dominance of economic opportunities.

"This anger has been growing for a long time," said Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress in exile in Sweden.

"It began as a peaceful assembly. There were thousands of people shouting to stop ethnic discrimination, demanding an explanation ... They are tired of suffering in silence."

The claims of conspiracy by pro-independence exiles echo the Chinese government's handling of rioting across Tibetan areas in March last year, which it also called a plot hatched abroad.

And the Urumqi unrest underscores that Xinjiang, no less than Tibet, faces volatile ethnic tensions that have accompanied China's growing economic and political stake in its western regions, many thousands of kilometers from Beijing.

Xinjiang is the doorway to China's trade and energy ties with central Asia, and is itself rich in natural gas, minerals and farm produce. But many Uighurs say they see little of that wealth.

NUMBER OF DEAD UNCLEAR

By Monday morning, official news reports were still vague about how many people may have died in the rioting and clashes with security forces.

Late on Sunday, Xinhua had said "three ordinary people of the Han ethnic group" were killed. But its latest report on Monday merely said that "a number of innocent members of the public and one officer of the People's Armed Police were killed."

Alim Seytoff, general secretary of the Uyghur American Association, based in Washington D.C., said he believed numbers of Uighurs may also have died in the clashes, and police and officials were going through university dormitory rooms looking for students involved in the protest that gave way to the riot.

"Urumqi is a tightly controlled city, but the students have access to all sorts of information on the Internet," he said.

"There will be a harsh crackdown, but the basic problems won't disappear."

Seytoff sent pictures by email that he said showed hundreds of locals confronting police officers, armored riot-control vehicles patrolling Urumqi streets, wounded and bloodied civilians laying on streets, and ranks of anti-riot police with shields and clubs.

Almost half of Xinjiang's 20 million people are Uighurs. Many resent controls imposed by Beijing, and an inflow of Han Chinese migrants. The population of Urumqi is mostly Han Chinese, and the city is under tight police security even in normal times.

Xinjiang has been under increasingly rigid security in recent years, especially in the run-up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, when the region was hit by several deadly attacks authorities said were the work of militants.

But human rights groups and Uighur independence activists say Beijing grossly exaggerates the militant threat to justify harsh controls restricting peaceful political demands.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Jerry Norton)