Security officers try to control Uighur bystanders, standing near the wall, as some Uighur protestors marched through the streets in Urumqi. -- PHOTO: AP
KASHGAR (China) - CHINESE officials on Friday ordered foreign media to leave the ancient Silk Road city of Kashgar, citing safety concerns after deadly unrest in other parts of China's remote Xinjiang region.
situation in kashgar unclear
THE situation in Kashgar following the unrest in Urumqi has been unclear.
Chinese state media reported that police dispersed 'more than 200 rioters' who had gathered outside Id Kah mosque on Monday, without giving further details.
'All foreign journalists should leave for their own safety,' Mr Chen Li, a press official with the Kashgar government, told AFP, as more than 2,000 soldiers were seen patrolling the streets.
The ban came in sharp contrast to rare access given to foreign journalists in Urumqi, the capital of the north-west Xinjiang region, where ethnic unrest erupted on Sunday leaving 156 dead and over 1,000 injured.
The conflict erupted on Sunday when members of the mainly Muslim Uighur minority, who have long complained of discrimination under Chinese rule, took to the streets of Urumqi in protest.
Authorities blamed Uighurs for 'rioting', although exiled Uighur leaders say security forces used disproportionate force in their clampdown and that hundreds of Uighurs may have died. Sporadic violence continued for days after.
An AFP reporter and photographer were among the small foreign media contingent who travelled to Kashgar to determine the situation there following the protests in Urumqi, which lies more than 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) away.
The AFP reporter and photographer had early Friday sought to report from Kashgar's main Id Kah mosque, but police ordered them away and took them back to their hotel. The government order to leave the city came hours afterwards.
'I'm sorry but the Kashgar government ordered last night that we must stop all reporting activities in Kashgar due to the security situation,' a policemen said to the AFP reporter before escorting him away from the mosque.
Kashgar, where Uighurs make up around 90 per cent of the population, has in the past been more volatile than Urumqi, where the mix between Uighurs and China's dominant Han ethnic group is much more even.
In one of the worst bouts of recent violence in Kashgar, two Uighur men killed 17 policemen at the beginning of August last year in what China said was an act of terrorism aimed at sabotaging the Beijing Olympics. -- AFP
