Morning:
9°c
Britain calls for calm after 140 die in China ethnic riots
Ed Harris06.07.09
Street battles have left at least 140 dead and more than 800 injured in the worst ethnic unrest to hit China's Xinjiang region in decades.
Security forces in the city of Urumqi set up checkpoints to catch fleeing rioters today and protests spread to a second city, Kashgar. State officials said the death toll was likely to rise after tensions between Muslim Uighurs and China's Han majority erupted into violence.
The bloodshed caused international alarm, with Downing Street calling for calm. A spokesman said: “Of course we are concerned about the reports of violence and loss of life. We would urge restraint on all sides and for problems to be resolved through dialogue.”
Rioters in Urumqi yesterday attacked vehicles and houses and clashed with police, according to witnesses. The government blamed Uighur separatists for fuelling the unrest, but exile groups said police reacted violently to a peaceful protest in the regional capital.
The demonstrators were demanding justice for two Uighurs killed last month during a fight with Han Chinese co-workers at a factory.
A Uighur man in Kashgar said he was among more than 300 protesters outside a mosque today. He said police surrounded the demonstrators: “We were yelling at each other, but there were no clashes, no physical contact.”
Reader views (5)
London evening : Cheaters!!! Liars!!! Bias!!!
don't mislead anyone
- John, HongKong
"The women invoking Tiananmen's spirit"================
What's this article means?Does it means it's right for the Uighurs terrorists kill innocent people to pronounce their religion demand?It's the Chinese government who limited their religious freedom£¬but not the people they killed.The Chinese government even limited the killed people's right to have babies.They own less right but bear more pressure.Should I suppose the writer goto Iran to block Khamenei's tank for Iran people just like the young man did on the picture below,before he/she show his/her universal love?I don't want to see any people
hurt,I am very sad it happened.Can you Europeans just put down your nobel medals?What's the difference between show your power with people's dead and show your great with people's dead?
- Stranger, China
In fact, innocent Han Chinese and the other minorities were attacked by Uighur ppl during the riot! Uighur rioters killed innocents firstly!The exiled Uighur leader even lied in public by using a wrong photo which was taken in another riot arising in Han Chinese community in another province in June. Nothing about Uighur business.
- Vicky Kwan, Toronto, Canada
Cannot Downing Street keep its snout out of other peeps' business?
Downing Street cannot even look after Joe Public.
- Reuben Camara, Republic of Morecambe, UK
Do you really think China gives a tinker's poop about what lily-livered Labour has to say?
- Ex London, Germany
