9/7/09; (2 Items)
Police killed 400 Uighurs in the capital of China’s Xinjiang region during ethnic unrest there, exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer claimed yesterday. Ms Kadeer said Uighur sources within “East Turkestan”, the separatist name for the northwest region, had told her 400 Uighurs had died “as a result of police shootings and beatings” in Urumqi since violence erupted there on Sunday. Writing in The Wall Street Journal Asia, the president of the World Uighur Congress said unrest was spreading across the region and unconfirmed reports indicated more than 100 Uighurs had been killed in Kashgar, another major city in Xinjiang. Chinese authorities have said 156 people died in Sunday’s violence in Urumqi. They have not made clear how many of the victims were Han Chinese and how many were Uighur, or how they died.
See: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,25753346-2703,00.html; Enemies at the gate – Uighur and Han describe deadly violence; John Garnaut; 9/7/09; http://www.smh.com.au/world/enemies-at-the-gate–uighur-and-han-describe-deadly-violence-20090708-ddgc.html?page=-1
China may ‘execute’ protesters
9/7/09
People arrested during ethnic tensions in China’s Xinjiang region have been warned that they may be executed. Li Zhi, the Communist party chief for the city of Urumqi, said “to those who committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them”. The warning came as protests appeared to calm after at least 156 people were killed in clashes that errupted on Sunday. Hu Jintao, China’s president, left the G8 summit in Italy to return to Beijing early as an indication of how seriously the country is taking the conflict between ethnic Uighurs and Han Chinese.
See: http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2009/07/200978151043392638.html
Tags: Capital Punishment, China, Human Rights