Twenty-one people had been charged with murder, arson, robbery and damaging property during ethnic riots that erupted in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, on July 5, Xinhua news agency said.

A total of 197 people were killed over several days of rioting in the ethnically divided city, most from the Han Chinese majority.

Of the eight “leading” suspects identified in the report, six appear to be Uighurs. Investigations continue.

Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur leader accused by China of inciting the violence, said the “shadow of communism” could fall on democratic Taiwan, China’s neighbor and diplomatic rival, which refused her permission to visit.

Citing security concerns, Taiwan’s interior minister told parliament that Kadeer, president of the World Uyghur Congress, could not accept an invitation backed by the island’s anti-China opposition to visit in December for a series of speeches.

“I am very concerned about the future of Taiwan,” the exiled, U.S.-based Kadeer said in a statement. “I fear that the shadow of communism may fall on the people of Taiwan.

China has claimed sovereignty over self-ruled Taiwan since 1949, when Mao Zedong’s forces won the Chinese civil war and Chiang Kai-shek’s KMT fled to the island. Beijing has threatened to use force, if necessary, to bring Taiwan under its rule.

www.reuters.com

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Monday, 31 August 2009 09:13

World Bulletin / News Desk

Turkish State Minister Zafer Caglayan met with Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi on Sunday, state-run news agency said.

Caglayan told reporters that they discussed relations between the two countries. Caglayan added that he conveyed Turkey’s views about the incidents which occurred in Urumqi on July 5 and affected everybody deeply.

Caglayan said that Chinese foreign minister briefed him about the measures taken after the incidents in Urumqi. Caglayan added that he would also visit Urumqi.

Caglayan said that Uighur Turks were important for Turkey as they were both Turks and Muslims.

Caglayan is expected to meet with Chinese Commerce Minister Chen Deming and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao today, Anadolu Agency said.

Uighur demonstrators took the streets in Urumqi on July 5 to protest against Han Chineses’ attacks on Uighurs workers at a factory in south China in June which left two Uighurs dead. Hans in Urumqi sought bloody revenge two days later.

World Uighur Congress said that near 800 Uigurs were killed during a week-violence after Han Chineses attacks and following intervention of China forces. The China governmnet put the death toll 197.

Video appeared showing Chinese lynch that sparked Uighur protests. Exiled Uighur leaders said the protests were peaceful until security forces over-reacted with deadly force.

East Turkistan was occupied by the communist China in 1949 and its name was changed in 1955.

Turkey’s stance

Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan called killings “genocide”.

He said: “The incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide. There’s no point in interpreting this otherwise.”

Turkey keeps protests against China violence in Uighur region and a Minister and a Turkish consumer organization has called for boycott of Chinese goods.

Many Uighurs resent Han Chinese rule, complaining they’re marginalised economically and politically in their own land, while having to tolerate a rising influx of Han Chinese migrants.

Meanwhile, human rights groups accuse Beijing of using claims of “terrorism” as an excuse to crack down on peaceful pro-independence sentiment and expressions of Uighur identity.

East Turkistan, that has 8 million Uighurs, borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China’s largest natural gas-producing region.

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This included granting the detainees “access to a lawyer of their choice, presumption of innocence, and handing down proportionate sentences on those found guilty,” the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said after considering China’s record.

China had said during the UN hearing held on August 7 and 10 that it has released 1,231 people held over the Tibet unrest after they were “punished, made to submit statements of repentance and educated by judicial authorities in Tibet.”

Seventy-seven others have been charged with serious offences such as burglary, arson and obstruction of justice, while seven others were charged with espionage.

Beijing added that 718 people were still held over the violence in Xinjiang, with around 83 people facing charges of serious crimes, such as murder, arson and robbery.

In its conclusions published Friday, the UN committee acknowledged China’s duty to maintain public order in the face of the unrest, but said it was “concerned” at allegations of the disproportionate use of force against ethnic Tibetans and Uighurs.

“The committee further recommends that the state party carefully consider the root causes of such events, including inter-ethnic violence and the reasons why the situation escalated,” it said.

It recommended that China step up efforts to develop areas in the west — where Tibet and Xinjiang lie, in order to eliminate economic and social disparities that persist in these areas.

Beijing has said that at least 197 people were killed in the July 5 unrest in the capital of Xinjiang, Urumqi, which pitted minority Uighurs against members of China’s dominant Han ethnic group.

The violence in Xinjiang came a year after riots in Tibet that broke out after monks led peaceful protests to mark a 1959 uprising. The unrest later spread across the Tibetan plateau.

www.sinodaily.com

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HONG KONG—A prominent Beijing-based economist and member of China’s Uyghur ethnic minority has been released without charge after he was detained for allegedly promoting separatism, but he said police then visited his home to warn him he could still be tried and executed.

Ilham Tohti, a professor at Beijing’s Central Nationalities University, said his cell phone resumed service Saturday and he was released after more than one month in custody.

But he said police knocked on his door late Monday to warn him against speaking out against the government’s handling of deadly July 5 riots that pitted mainly Muslim Uyghurs against majority Han Chinese in Urumqi, capital of China’s northwestern Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

“They told me I could soon be sentenced—be sentenced to death, be ‘dealt with,’” Tohti said.

Tohti said that one police officer remained in his home and stood by his side as he spoke with RFA in a telephone interview.

“I did not want to see what happened in Xinjiang on July 5. Ordinary citizens must be left alone to go on with their lives…I do not harbor any conspiracies, but I want to firmly defend the legal rights of the Uyghur people,” he said.

Detention

Tohti said he had been detained partly in his home and in a hotel “somewhere near Beijing” for two weeks, during which time three or four policemen “chatted with me endlessly” both day and night.

“I was unable to tell day from night. My head was spinning [from the questioning]…I spent more than 20 hours a day with them,” Tohti said.

Tohti said he was never treated inhumanely during his detention, calling his captors “courteous” and “civilized,” even while he knew the “procedure was illegal.”

“[They produced] nothing to indicate what they were doing was in accordance with the law,” he said, adding that he was never accused of committing a specific crime.

“But since the chatting was done with the secret police, it definitely had something to do with national security and politics,” Tohti said.

Tohti said his captors “expressed particular concern” about the July 5 riots and an earlier clash between Han and Uyghur factory workers in China’s southern Guangdong province that sparked the Urumqi unrest.

“They were concerned about what I had said.”

‘This is a political issue’

Tohti went missing after he reported police had summoned him from his Beijing home following the July 5 riots in Urumqi.

He was detained after writing about the violence on his Web site, Uyghur Online.

Chinese officials responded to inquiries about Tohti during his detention by saying that he had left Beijing with his family for a summer vacation, which he has denied.

Tohti said that although he had been released after an investigation determined he had not violated the law or attempted to incite violence, he remains concerned that authorities will continue to monitor his actions.

“They say I am cleared of any problems, but they do not call the shots. This is a political issue. I don’t know what the higher-ups are thinking. By ‘higher-ups’ I mean leaders at the highest level,” he said.

Uyghur Online

Tohti said that his online activities have been carefully scrutinized by the government and that members of the Uyghur Online staff had been summoned by authorities for questioning as early as March this year.

“We do not know the whereabouts of the majority of the editors and staff of Uyghur Online,” Tohti said.

He said one Uyghur service reporter for official CCTV had been missing for more than a month.

“He’s been detained. That has been confirmed. But it was not done according to the proper procedure of the law,” Tohti said.

Tohti said he was unsure how Uyghur Online would operate after his detention.

“It used to be like Global Times,” he said, referring to another China-based news Web site. “We yielded to the government.”

“After all, China is moving ahead. We should respect one another. There should be a greater effort to achieve social justice.”

Tohti’s blog, Uyghur Online, publishes in Chinese and Uyghur and is widely seen as a moderate, intellectual Web site addressing social issues. Authorities have closed it on several previous occasions.

Uyghur Online was specifically targeted, along with exiled Uyghur leader Rebiya Kadeer, in a July 5 speech by the governor of Xinjiang, Nur Bekri, as an instigator of the clashes.

Tohti has said he was interrogated repeatedly and accused of separatism after he spoke out in March against Chinese policies in Xinjiang, particularly the disproportionately high unemployment there among Uyghurs compared with Han Chinese.

Original reporting by Ding Xiao for RFA’s Mandarin service and by Ho Shan for RFA’s Cantonese service. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Cantonese service director: Shiny Li. Translated by Jennifer Chou and Ho Shan. Written for the Web in English by Joshua Lipes. Edited by Sarah Jackson-Han.

Radio Free Asia

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