Chinese officials, including Xinjiang Gov. Nur Bekri have blamed Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur human rights activist now exiled in the United States for instigating and coordinating the unrest. Kadeer is the head of the Washington, D.C., Uighur American Association.
Today Alim Seytoff, vice president of the UAA said, "We are extremely saddened by the heavy-handed use of force by the Chinese security forces against the peaceful demonstrators. We ask the international community to condemn China's killing of innocent Uighurs. This is a very dark day in the history of the Uighur people."
He brushed aside Bekri's allegations against Kadeer, saying, "It's common practice for the Chinese government to accuse Ms. Kadeer for any unrest" in Xinjiang.
The riots began when Uighurs took to the streets to demand a full investigation into clashes that occurred between Uighur and Han Chinese workers in Guangdong province at the end of June. Two Uighurs were killed and 118 people were injured.
Some media outlets are calling this the deadliest unrest since Tiananmen Square in 1989. But the numbers from more recent clashes are difficult to verify. After the clashes in Tibet in 2008, China's official number of dead was less than two dozen, while Tibetan rights groups said 200 people died.
Xinjiang is a vast oil-rich desert in China's west. Almost half of Xinjiang's 20 million people are Uighurs, but the population of Urumqi is largely made up of Han Chinese immigrants. Ethnic tensions between the two groups are always high in Xinjiang. The Chinese government is wary of Uighurs and accuses them of trying to break away from China. And as in Tibet, the Uighurs have deep frustrations with the Communist Party's policies and the economic prosperity of the Han Chinese in the region.
The Associated Press contributed to the reporting of this story.
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