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Uighur protesters gather during a demonstration in China - Source: Reuters -
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China has raised the death toll from ethnic rioting in the far
western region of Xinjiang to 184, and for the first time gave a
breakdown by ethnicity and sex of those who died, state media
reported on Saturday.
The official Xinhua news agency said that 137 of those killed were
Han Chinese, who form the majority of China's population, including
111 men and 26 women.
Forty-six were Uighurs, a Turkic people who are largely Muslim and
share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia. All but one
were men. Uighurs make up almost half of Xinjiang's 20 million
people.
Xinhua said the other dead person from the violence that erupted
last weekend was a member of the Hui Muslim ethnic group which is
culturally akin to Han Chinese.
Chinese authorities had delayed releasing the ethnic breakdown of
the dead, possibly out of concern it would further inflame the
situation.
Beijing cannot afford to lose its grip on the vast territory that
borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is
China's largest natural gas-producing region.
On July 5, demonstrations in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi by Uighurs
protesting against an attack on Uighur workers in southern China
turned deadly after police moved in. Shops and vehicles were
burned.
Human Rights Watch said that the government had deployed some
20,000 troops in Urumqi since the riots.
"The government has promised a thorough investigation into the
violence but has so far presented a skewed and incomplete picture
of the unrest," said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at
Human Rights Watch.
"This raises serious doubts about its commitment to investigating
all aspects of the violence rather than presenting a pre-determined
version of the events."
China condemns kadeer
Urumqi is still tense, with thousands of troops and police
deployed throughout the city. A brief demonstration broke out on
Friday, the main Muslim day of prayer, after some mosques were
opened briefly.
Xinhua did not specify if any of the dead were killed on Tuesday,
when Han Chinese residents of Urumqi took to the streets in
demonstrations and in at least one instance clashed with
Uighurs.
Many Uighurs resent controls imposed by Beijing and the influx of
Han Chinese migrants, whom they say are the main beneficiaries of
China's economic development.
China has blamed the unrest on "separatists", singling out exiled
Uighur businesswoman Rebiya Kadeer, who lives in the United States.
Kadeer denies any involvement.
The government has slammed Kadeer and exiled Uighurs for using
pictures from other incidents of unrest in different parts of China
and claiming they were taken in Xinjiang.
"The discredited Kadeer surely loves the spotlight and (the)
photo-op, but she should also bear in mind that greater publicity
may do her more harm than good, if she keeps telling lies," Xinhua
said in an English-language commentary on Saturday.
On Friday, foreign reporters were ordered to leave Kashgar, an
oasis city in southern Xinjiang that is still majority Uighur.
Earlier this year, China announced plans to raze the city's
historic centre, citing concerns about earthquake safety.
The Uighur language is related to Turkish, and some Uighurs refer
to their desert homeland as "East Turkestan".
On Friday, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan called the
killings in Xinjiang a "genocide".
In Washington, two members of the U.S. House of Representatives
introduced a bipartisan resolution condemning the "violent
repression" of the Uighur people by China and urging Beijing to
"end its slander" of Kadeer. It is unclear how soon it will come to
a vote in the House.
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