CHINA> Regional
Death toll in Xinjiang riot rises to 156
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-07-07 03:44

Police: World Uyghur Congress masterminded Xinjiang riot

Police in northwest China's Xinjiang region said Monday they have evidence that the separatist World Uyghur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer masterminded the Sunday riot.

An unidentified spokesman of the Xinjiang regional department of public security said some people used "a number of telephones outside the country" to direct mobs in Xinjiang to stage the violence.

Police have obtained recordings of calls between overseas Eastern Turkestan groups and their accomplices in the country, the officer said.

In the recorded calls, Rebiya Kadeer said, "Something will happen in Urumqi." She also called her younger brother in Urumqi, saying, "We know a lot of things have happened," referring to the June 26 brawl involving workers from Xinjiang in a toy factory in Guangdong Province.

The spokesman said some people started posting calls on Internet forums for demonstrations in Urumqi Saturday evening, in support of protests to be held by overseas separatists.

Within hours after the violence broke out Sunday, Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, said all Uygurs were ordered off the streets and armed soldiers seized every Uygur if seen in the streets. The spokesman of Xinjiang police said Dilxat Raxit's remarks were lies that could be easily exposed by people who suffered from the violence.

The World Uyghur Congress also used the factory brawl between Uygur and Han ethnic workers, in which two Uygurs died, to create chaos.

It turned a blind eye to facts and said on the Internet that "the incident (brawl) is an organized, preempted, and systematic ethnic cleansing against Uygurs, which is manipulated by the Communist Party of China and conducted by civilians," according to the police spokesman.

However, the Xinjiang Uygur workers injured in the brawl condemned the riot in their hometown.

"The rioters used our injuries as an excuse for their violence, " said Atigul Turdi, 24, who was injured when she was running out of the scene of the fight and is now recovering in a hospital in Shaoguan, Guangdong.

"I firmly opposed the violence in the name of taking revenge for us," she said. "Why did the rioters destroy our beautiful and peaceful Xinjiang region in such cruel manners?"

Among the 60 injured workers from Xinjiang, 29 have been discharged from hospital, a dozen others have recovered and the rest are in stable conditions.