People pass the burning wreck of a car in a street in Urumqi in China's Xinjiang province. -- PHOTO: AFP
BEIJING - CHINESE police have arrested 1,434 suspects over deadly weekend riots in the north-western region of Xinjiang, state media reported on Tuesda, while at least 200 people staged a fresh protest in Urumqi, an AFP reporter said.
DRAMATIC FOOTAGE
DRAMATIC footage broadcast of the unrest by the state-run CCTV network showed men turning over a police car and smashing its windows, a woman being kicked as she lay on the ground and buses and other vehicles aflame.
Han Chinese businesspeople told AFP there were around 3,000 Uighur protesters, a figure repeated by exiled Uighur groups.
LONDON - HUMAN rights group Amnesty International on Tuesday urged China to 'fully account' for the deaths of more than 150 people in riots in Xinjiang and called for an independent probe.
Amnesty said China must also explain its detention of some 1,434 people following the violence, which broke out after protests by the troubled region's Uighur Muslim population.
The official Xinhua news agency had earlier said that more than 700 people had been detained over the unrest, in which at least 156 people were killed on Sunday.
State media said the deaths occurred when Muslim Uighurs went on the rampage in some of the deadliest ethnic unrest in China in decades. But Uighur leaders said the riots started after Chinese police had attacked a peaceful protest.
The violence in the regional capital Urumqi on Sunday involved thousands of people and triggered an enormous security crackdown across Xinjiang, where Uighurs have long complained of repressive Chinese rule.
'People are staying inside, the best thing for you is to go back to your hotel, that will be safe,' a businessman told AFP near Urumqi's bazaar district, the scene of much of the violence.
In a sign tensions were still running high, state media reported that police had dispersed more than 200 'rioters' on Monday evening as they gathered at the main mosque in Kashgar, a city in western Xinjiang on the ancient Silk Road.
Police believed people were 'trying to organise more unrest' in other cities in the vast mountainous and desert region that borders Central Asia, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Xinhua said more than 700 people had been arrested for involvement in Sunday's riots, which authorities blamed on Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people who have closer cultural links to regional neighbours than the Han Chinese.
Exiled Uighur groups accused Chinese security forces of over-reacting to peaceful protests and firing indiscriminately on crowds.
The deadly unrest drew attention around the world, with UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon leading calls for restraint, a sentiment echoed by Britain and the United States.
'We are deeply concerned over reports of many deaths and injuries from violence in Urumqi in western China,' White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said. 'We call on all in Xinjiang to exercise restraint,' Mr Gibbs said in a statement.
Xinjiang communist party official Li Yi said early Tuesday the death toll had risen to 156 - 129 men and 27 women - and 1,080 injured, up from the previous figure of at least 140 dead and 828 injured, Xinhua reported.
'At present, the situation is still seriously complicated, Xinjiang will prevent the situation from spreading to other areas using the most powerful measures and methods, and will safeguard regional stability,' China News Service quoted Nur Bekri, chairman of the Xinjiang region, as saying earlier. -- AFP
