 BEIJING — Nine men have been executed for taking part in ethnic rioting that left nearly 200 people dead in July, the first suspects put to death in the unrest, Chinese state media reported Monday. The worst ethnic unrest in decades began July 5 when minority Uighurs attacked Han, who make up China's dominant ethnicity, only to face retaliatory attacks two days later. Many Uighurs, who are a Turkic Muslim ethnic group linguistically and culturally distinct from the Han, resent Beijing's heavy-handed rule in Xinjiang, their traditional homeland. Four months later, Xinjiang remains smothered in heavy security, with Internet access cut and international direct dialing calls blocked. The official China News Service reported that the nine were executed after a final review of the verdicts by the Supreme People's Court as required by law, but gave no specific date or other details. Earlier reports had identified those condemned as eight Uighurs and one Han. The timing of the executions was not especially fast for China, which puts more people to death than any other country.
Politically sensitive cases are often decided in weeks, especially when they involve major unrest. The nine had been convicted of murder and other crimes committed during the riots in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital. China blames the rioting on overseas-based groups agitating for broader rights for Uighurs in Xinjiang. The news service said another 20 people were indicted on Monday on charges related to the deaths of 18 people and other crimes committed during the riots. All but two of the prisoners listed in the report had Uighur sounding names, with the others appearing to be Han. Overseas Uighur activist Dilxat Raxit condemned the executions as motivated by politics and the need to appease Urumqi's angry Han residents, who marched in the thousands through the city in September to demand trials of those responsible for the July violence and the perpetrators of a bizarre series of hypodermic needle attacks. "We don't think they got a fair trial, and we believe this was a political verdict," said Raxit, who serves as spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress. "The United States and the European Union did not put any pressure on China or seek to intervene and for that we are extremely disappointed," he said. Source: FoxNews 
 SIX Chinese Muslim Uighurs held at Guantanamo Bay arrived in the Pacific island nation of Palau today. It represents the latest step in US President Barack Obama's struggle to close the controversial prison.
The men, who had been held at the US naval base in Cuba for more than seven years despite being cleared of all charges, arrived here “to begin rebuilding their lives in freedom,” New York-based lawyers for three of the former prisoners said.
They had been cleared by the previous George W. Bush administration after it decided to no longer treat them as “enemy combatants,” the Justice Department said.
It identified the men as Ahmad Tourson, Abdul Ghappar Abdul Rahman, Edham Mamet, Anwar Hassan, Dawut Abdurehim and Adel Noori.
“These men want nothing more than to live peaceful, productive lives in a free, democratic nation safe from oppression by the Chinese,” said Eric Tirschwell of Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel, which represented the former detainees along with the Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR).
“Thanks to Palau, which has graciously offered them a temporary home, they now have that chance. We hope that another country will soon step forward to provide them permanent sanctuary.”
Palau President Johnson Toribiong, who met the Uighers on their arrival, said they would put through a structured programme to assist their transition to civil life.
“The government of Palau will provide medical care, room and board, and education to the Uighurs until such time as they are prepared to integrate into the Palauan community,” Johnson said in a statement.
“The Uighurs will be taught conversational and written English, educated about the culture and laws of Palau, and instructed in skills that will enable them to find a job and earn a living in Palau.”
The former prisoners were among 22 Uighurs _ a Turkic-speaking Muslim minority from China's remote Xinjiang region _ living at a self-contained camp in Afghanistan when the US-led invasion of the country began in October 2001.
They said they had fled to Afghanistan to escape persecution from China, which wants the men returned home to be tried, saying they belong to an Islamic separatist movement.
Amid US administration fears that they could face torture if returned to China, five were released in Albania in 2006, and four were resettled in Bermuda this year. The others have remained in legal limbo.
Palau, which has no diplomatic relations with China, has agreed to take up to 12 Uighurs. Seven remain at Guantanamo, where 215 “war on terror” suspects are still held.
Many of the 21,000 residents of Palau have expressed unease about the former detainees resettling in their tiny country, which only has a smattering of Muslim inhabitants.
The Uighurs now in Palau and those still at Guantanamo contend they should be released in the United States and the US Supreme Court has agreed to hear their case early next year.
A federal judge last year ordered that the men be released to US soil, where families from the large Uighur community are willing to host them.
But Obama has signed into law a bill passed by Congress that bars the release of any Guantanamo detainees to US soil.
Matthew Olsen, executive director of the Guantanamo Review Task Force charged with reviewing the detainee cases, said the United States was “grateful to the Republic of Palau for its assistance in the resettlement of these individuals.”
The move comes as Obama faces a litany of challenges to meet his self-assigned deadline to close the prison by January.
Olsen's team has struggled to persuade other countries to take some of the captives, with only a trickle of prisoners transferred since Obama's inauguration in January.
Since the notorious jail was opened in January 2002 under former president George W. Bush, more than 550 detainees have been transferred to other nations.
Palau lies about 500 miles (800 kms) east of the Philippines, and was administered by the United States until independence in 1994.
 A COURT in western China's Xinjiang region sentenced six more Uighurs to death over deadly ethnic unrest in July, bringing the total to 12.
Three other people were handed life sentences by the court in the regional capital Urumqi for their role in the July 5 unrest that rocked the city, pitting mainly Muslim Uighurs against members of China's dominant Han group.
On Monday, six defendants - all Uighurs - were handed the death penalty and another was given life in jail over the unrest, which left nearly 200 people dead, most of them Han, according to the government.
The riots were the worst ethnic violence to hit China in decades, and left more than 1,600 people injured.
The nine who were sentenced were part of a larger group of 14 tried a day earlier, but the two-sentence Xinhua report did not mention the five remaining defendants.
None of the nine convicted was identified.
A spokeswoman for the city government in Urumqi confirmed that verdicts had been announced, but said she had no further details.
Officials at the local court were not immediately available for comment.
Aside from the 21 tried this week, police have also detained about 700 other people suspected of crimes related to the unrest, earlier reports have said.
China's roughly eight million Uighurs have long complained of religious, political and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities, and tensions have simmered in the Xinjiang region for years.
Uighurs say the unrest was triggered when police cracked down on peaceful protests by Uighurs over a late June brawl at a factory in southern China that state media said left two Uighurs dead.
One ethnic Han man was sentenced to death and a second handed a life prison term over that brawl in verdicts announced on Saturday in southern China.
Authorities, however, have blamed the Xinjiang unrest on "ethnic separatists", without providing any evidence.
 Six people were sentenced to death for murder and other crimes in riots that killed about 200 people in western China, state media reported Monday. A seventh person was sentenced to life in prison, the Xinhua news agency said. The riots in July were prompted by long-simmering resentment between minority Uyghurs and majority Han Chinese.
The Uyghurs are mostly Muslims in western China's Xinjiang province. Some Islamists refer to the region as East Turkistan. Last month, China sent 7,000 officials to Urumqi to ease tensions after Han Chinese protested a series of attacks in which syringes were used as weapons.
The syringe attacks by Uyghurs started August 17. Source: CNN
 A leading Al-Qaeda militant on Wednesday called on Muslims worldwide to defend Uighurs in China's restive northwestern region of Xinjiang. He told Uighurs to prepare for a holy war or Jihad and urged a "vast media campaign" to raise awareness of their fate at the hands of "oppressive" China.
In the video posted to jihadist websites, Abu Yahya al-Libi appeared to launch a frontal assault against China.
"This massacre is not being carried out by criminal Crusaders or evil Jews who have committed crimes against our nation," al-Libi stated.
"Today, a new massacre is being carried out by Buddhist nationalists and communists against the Muslim population in eastern Turkestan," said al-Libi.
Islamists call Xinjiang East Turkestan. Uighurs are Muslims native to Xinjiang province, and have cultural ties to Turkic peoples in Central Asia.
"There is no way to remove injustice and oppression without a true return to their (Uighurs) religion and ... serious preparation for Jihad in the path of God the Almighty and to carry weapons in the face of those (Chinese) invaders," he said.
 By GORDON FAIRCLOUGH SHANGHAI -- Authorities stepped up already heavy security in Urumqi -- the northwestern Chinese city torn by deadly ethnic riots in July -- after thousands of protesters took to the streets Thursday criticizing the government for failing to protect people after a recent spate of attacks by assailants wielding syringes. The demonstrators, who began gathering early Thursday, were members of China's majority Han ethnic group, Han witnesses said. They said the crowds were peaceful -- and shouted for the removal of the region's powerful Communist Party secretary, Wang Lequan. "There are people everywhere," said one woman working near the city's central People's Square earlier in the day. "They are chanting: 'Down with Wang Lequan.'" A brief report by the state-run Xinhua news agency late Thursday said "tens of thousands of people" had taken part in demonstrations at several locations in the city. "The overall situation is now calming," said the report. A separate Xinhua report said police closed main roads in the center of the city late Thursday, citing cellphone text messages sent out by the government. The report said the protests had crippled traffic in Urumqi and forced shops to close. Xinhua didn't report any violence or injuries. The demonstrations were an unusual public challenge at a sensitive time for China's political leadership, which has tightened security across the country ahead of celebrations for the 60th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party rule on Oct. 1. Tensions have remained high in Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang region, since the July riots, which left nearly 200 people dead and more than 1,600 injured in the country's worst episode of ethnic violence in decades. The bloodshed began when Turkic-speaking and predominantly Muslim ethnic Uighurs went on a rampage against Han Chinese, killing more than 130. Revenge attacks by Han followed. Read more here,,, Source: WSJ
URUMQI, Aug. 12 (Xinhua) -- Foreign envoys visiting the riot-hit Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China called for closer cooperation among the international community to crack down on terrorism after watching an exhibition on the July 5 riot on Tuesday.  | | Diplomats watch weapons seized from terrorist cells while visiting an exhibition on the achievements of anti-terrorism and anti-separatism in Xinjiang at Xinjiang Public Security Department in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Aug. 11, 2009. Diplomats from 26 countries and regions to China visited the exhibition on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Sadat)
| "I have seen some photos (of the riot) before I came to Urumqi, but I still feel very shocked now for the tragic incident," said Pakistani ambassador to China Masood Khan. "Children lost their parents, wives lost husbands, the elderly people lost their offspring. This should not have taken place at all," he said. "We fully support the Chinese government's stand in cracking down on 'the three forces'of terrorism, separatism and extremism." Diplomats from 26 countries and regions to China began a five-day visit to Xinjiang on Monday, a month after the deadly riot in the regional capital of Urumqi which left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 others injured. At the invitation of the regional government, they are expected to, through the visit, acquire a better understanding of Xinjiang's development over the past several decades in various sectors, including its politics, economy, ethnic and religious policies, preservation of cultural relics and the livelihood of local residents. Murat Salim Esenli, Turkish ambassador to China, said the timing of the riot was not accidental. The image of Xinjiang is changing for the positive to the world, but some people did not want to see the positive image and tried to sabotage the development and stability of the region, he said. Esenli said countries should cooperate with each other in face of terrorism, separatism and extremism. The "three forces" have become a common threat to almost all countries in the world, said Esenli, adding that "no single country can deal with the problem alone, they should cooperate with each other." A large number of weapons seized from terrorist cells were displayed during another exhibition on the achievements of anti-terrorism and anti-separatism in Xinjiang. The diplomats who visited the scene of the exhibition said it's necessary for the Chinese government to take measures to fight against terrorism and protect the safety of the people. According to the regional public security department, the "three forces" had launched some 1,000 attacks in Xinjiang since 1990, killing more than 160 people. Some 648 terrorist cells and violent criminal groups had been wiped out by the public security forces. "We have to share information and technology in the field of fighting against terrorism," said Esenli. Afghan ambassador Sultan Ahmad Bahee said his country is also a victim of terrorist attacks, particularly suicide bombings. "We strongly request the international community to combat terrorism hand-in-hand," said Bahee. Source: Xinhua |
 The four members of China's Muslim Uighur minority began working last week to help prepare the lush, seaside Port Royal course to host the PGA Grand Slam of Golf in October. The hiring raised eyebrows in the British territory, where employers can only take on foreigners if no qualified local wants the job. Wendall Brown, chairman of the board of trustees for Bermuda's public golf courses, said the men replaced a group of Filipino workers who left at short notice. "They have been offered a temporary position at Port Royal until the Grand Slam," he said.
"There are still special projects that we need to do like cleaning up and beautifying the course ... All four of them have been given a job there. It's on a temporary basis. Two of them speak fairly good English." Mr Brown said the men were likely to still be working there during the two-day Grand Slam tournament, when golf's greatest champions of the year will be pitted against one another on the 18-hole course. Port Royal head superintendent Steve Johnson said the Uighurs were doing well in their ground staff roles. Their lawyer in Bermuda identified them as Khalil Mamut, Abilikim Turahun, Abdullah Abdulqadir and Salahidin Abdulahat, and said they had been known by a series of nicknames during the seven years they were held at the detention camp for suspected terrorists on the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Their imprisonment continued long after the US military and courts determined that they posed no threat. The United States said it could not send them to China because they faced persecution there, but US politicians blocked plans to settle them in the United States. The four landed on the 21-square-mile island on June 11 after Bermuda's premier, Ewart Brown, negotiated their resettlement directly with the United States. The move enraged the United Kingdom, which insisted the Bermuda government did not have the power to handle such foreign affairs and security matters. Britain and the United States are still in talks about the men's future. Expatriates make up a third of the work force in Bermuda, which has a population of 65,000 and requires permits to work. Mr Brown said the golf course worked with immigration officials to get the men permission to work. Source: The Australian
 Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer addresses a rally outside the Chinese Consulate in Toorak.Mary-Anne Toy | August 8 THE Chinese Government has threatened to end Melbourne's 29-year sister-city relationship with the city of Tianjin if Lord Mayor Robert Doyle does not intervene to stop the screening of a film about Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer at the Town Hall today.Mr Doyle has rejected the Chinese demands - as well as intense pressure from his own councillors to stop the screening of the controversial film. The Chinese consul-general in Melbourne, Shen Weilian, requested an urgent meeting with Cr Doyle after the Melbourne International Film Festival on Wednesday moved the premiere of The 10 Conditions of Love to the 1500-seat Town Hall. The move sought to cater for unprecedented demand created by earlier Chinese attempts to ban the film. It is understood that Mr Shen told Cr Doyle in blunt terms at a meeting at the Town Hall on Thursday that he risked jeopardising the Australia-China relationship - including Melbourne's sister-city arrangement with Tianjin - if he did not intervene and cancel the screening. The Chinese Government has labelled Ms Kadeer a terrorist and accused her of inciting the ethnic riots that last month killed almost 200 people. It is appalled at any apparent support for her. Read more here... Source: The Age
 Rebiya Kadeer has campaigned for the rights
of China's Uighur communityAugust 03 RELATIVES of exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer have blamed her for the deaths of innocent people in ethnic unrest early last month.
Kadeer's son Khahar, daughter Roxingul and younger brother Memet wrote an open letter to her, expressing "their moral indignation at the riot" in Urumqi, the capital of northwest China's Xinjiang region, the Xinhua news agency said.
"Because of you, many innocent people of all ethnic groups lost their lives in Urumqi on July 5, with huge damage to property, shops and vehicles," they wrote, according to Xinhua.
"The harmony and unity among ethnic groups were damaged," the letter allegedly said.
The Chinese government says Kadeer was behind the July 5 violence, which left 197 people dead, most of them Han Chinese killed by angry mobs from China's Uighur minority.
Kadeer, a former businesswoman who spent several years in Chinese jail before leaving for US exile earlier this decade, has denied the charges.
Among those of Kadeer's children who remain in China, her son Ablikim Abdiriyim was sentenced in April 2007 to nine years in prison for what Beijing called "secessionist" activities.
Two other sons, Khahar and Alim, were fined in 2006 for alleged tax evasion while Alim was also sentenced to seven years in jail, according to Amnesty International.
It was not possible to immediately ascertain the authenticity of the letter, which was widely reported in the Chinese-language media.
Chinese state television showed footage from the alleged letter, written in the Arabic script of the Uighur language.
The relatives held Kadeer and the World Uighur Congress (WUC), which she heads, responsible for the unrest, Xinhua said.
"Evidence proved the riot was organised by the WUC, led by Rebiya Kadeer, and implemented by a group of separatists within the Chinese borders," the letter reportedly said. "Those who committed crimes should take responsibility."
Rebiya Kadeer has campaigned for the rights
of China's Uighur community ALMOST 10,000 people "disappeared in one night" during ethnic unrest in the Chinese city of Urumqi early this month, exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer claimed today on the eve of her Australia visit. “Where did those people go?” she said in Japan, speaking in her native language through a translator. “If they died, where did they go?”
Ms Kadeer, 62, the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress, charged that “the Chinese government is trying to destroy the Uighur people. I want to tell the international community about our situation”.
She will fly to Australia chiefly to participate in the launch at the Melbourne International Film Festival on August 8 of a documentary, 10 Conditions of Love, in which she is the heroine.
She will also meet members of Australia's 2000-strong Uighur community.
Her participation in the festival has already caused a furore.
Five films - from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan - have been withdrawn as a result.
Beijing accuses the mother-of-11 of being a “criminal” who instigated the unrest pitting Uighurs against Han Chinese in China's Xinjiang region. Beijing claims 197 people died in the clashes.
Ms Kadeer charged that “the responsibility lies with the authorities who changed what was a peaceful demonstration into a violent riot”.
“For Uighurs, taking part in demonstrations is like committing suicide,” she added, speaking at a Tokyo press conference. Source: The Australian
Rebiya Kadeer has campaigned for the rights of China's Uighur community | Organisers of Melbourne's International Film Festival have defied calls from China not to show a documentary about an exiled Uighur leader. Festival director Richard Moore said a Chinese consular official had insisted that the film be withdrawn, but he had refused to do so. The film, Ten Conditions of Love, centres on Rebiya Kadeer, the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress. China accuses the group of inciting recent ethnic unrest in Xinjiang. Beijing and Canberra are already locked in a row over an Australian mining executive who has been arrested for spying in China. 'Strident' Mr Moore said that after the event's programme was published, he was contacted by Melbourne-based Chinese cultural attache Chunmei Chen who urged him to withdraw the film. "I said I had no reason to withdraw the film from the festival and she then proceeded to tell me that I had to justify my decision to include the film in the festival. "No-one reacts well to strident approaches, or to the appearance of being bullied. I don't think it's a positive way of behaving," he added. He said he told Ms Chen he did not have to justify the film's inclusion, "then politely hung up".  Chinese troops have restored order in Xinjiang after bloody riots | The Chinese consulate in Melbourne has not commented on the incident. China has accused Ms Kadeer of orchestrating recent bloodshed in Xinjiang, home to the ethnic Muslim Uighurs and a growing number of China's Han majority. Violence between the two groups this month has left more than 180 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, Chinese authorities say. Ms Kadeer, one of China's richest women, was jailed in China for endangering national security but released in 2005 on medical grounds. She now lives in the US. Ten Conditions of Love, by Melbourne film-maker Jeff Daniels, tells of Ms Kadeer's relationship with her activist husband Sidik Rouzi and the impact her campaigning had on her 11 children. Three of her children have been jailed. 'Spying' arrest Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned China on Wednesday that governments and corporations around the world were watching how it handled the case of an Australian mining executive. Stern Hu, the Australian head of Rio Tinto's iron ore business in China, was detained on suspicion of industrial espionage relating to negotiations with Chinese steel mills over iron ore prices. Source: BBC
 | | Zhou Yongkang (2nd R), member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC), visits a supermarket in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. | URUMQI, July 12 The violence-torn Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region is plodding on the road to recovery amid vigilance one week after the violence in its capital city of Urumqi that left 184 people dead and 1,680 injured. Police with riot gears were inspecting checkpoints, combing coaches for runaway suspects involved in the deadly violence. Zhou Yongkang, member of the Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee Political Bureau, said in his tour to the autonomous region on Sunday that to maintain social stability is the top concern of the livelihood of the people of all ethnic groups in Xinjiang for the time being. The regional government chairman Nur Berkri said in a televised speech Sunday afternoon that the number of people injured in violence on July 5 had risen to 1,680. Altogether 216 of the 939 hospitalized are seriously injured and 74 injured fatally, he said. An oil tank explosion occurred at a chemical plant in Urumqi Sunday morning. Police ruled out the possibility of intentional sabotage after on-the-spot investigation but said the reason of the explosion needs further investigation. At the suburb of Aksu City, people who flocked into the Uygur bazaar, Toksun, as the local residents called it, said they had felt something different. "There are much fewer people compared with what it was before the violence," said Tunxunjiang Tuohuniyazi, a local Uygur who were visiting the bazaar with his wife. "On my way here, I saw a lot of policemen," he said. "But I understand it. The heavy security helps ensure our safety." The bazaar, which boasts 3,000 stands, only saw a little more than 500 of them in business on Sunday. Tuniyazi Yiming, a vender busy baking dumplings, said his turnover halved with number of the bazaar visitors on such a sharp decline. The same bleak business picture could be seen in the border city of Kashgar in southern Xinjiang, where markets and bazaars reported only a few visitors. Also hurt is the the region's tourism. Sources with the Urumqi Municipal government told Xinhua that because of the riot, 1,184 tour groups had cancelled their plans to visit the city as of Sunday. They involved 74,218 travelers, including 10,731 tourists from overseas. Railway authorities said Sunday that situation in the Urumqi's train terminal is normal. The passenger volume was reported at 21,000 persons at the station on Sunday, 4,000 fewer than Saturday. "There are no so-called 'waves of refugees' and ticket scalpers reported by some overseas journalists in the train terminal," said Chen Kai, vice chief of the South Train Station of Urumqi. In Urumqi, thousands of youngsters have expressed their willingness to serve the city by signing up to be volunteers. "Two days after the hotline was launched, we have received more than 1,600 calls," said Yu Yinglong, head of the Volunteer Association in Urumqi. "They volunteered to serve in hospitals and to give psychological help to those who were traumatized in the violence." "The Koran teaches us that Muslims should be united. It teaches us to live in harmony with non-Muslims as well. Muslims and Non-Muslims should help and get along with each other on equal footing," said Xiahabuding Aihaiti, a teacher with the Xinjiang Academy of Islamic Scriptural. Source: Xinhua
 In Istanbul, Turkish protesters burned the Chinese flag at a rally | Turkey's prime minister has described ethnic violence in China's Xinjiang region as "a kind of genocide". "There is no other way of commenting on this event," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said. He spoke after a night-time curfew was reimposed in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, where Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese clashed last Sunday. The death toll from the violence there has now risen from 156 to 184, China's state-run Xinhua news agency reports. More than 1,000 people were injured. Turkey, a predominantly Muslim country, shares linguistic and religious links with the Uighurs in China's western-most region. "The event taking place in China is a kind of genocide," Mr Erdogan told reporters in Turkey's capital, Ankara. "There are atrocities there, hundreds of people have been killed and 1,000 hurt. We have difficulty understanding how China's leadership can remain a spectator in the face of these events." The Turkish premier also urged Beijing to "address the question of human rights and do what is necessary to prosecute the guilty". Mr Erdogan's comments came a day after Turkish Trade and Industry Minister Nihat Ergun urged Turks to boycott Chinese goods. Beijing has so far not publicly commented on Mr Erdogan's criticism. But it said that of the 184 people who died, 137 were Han Chinese. Earlier on Friday, the Chinese authorities reimposed a night-time curfew in Urumqi. The curfew had been suspended for two days after officials said they had the city under control. Mosques in the city were ordered to remain closed on Friday and notices were posted instructing people to stay at home to worship. But at least two opened after crowds of Uighurs gathered outside and demanded to be allowed in to pray on the holiest day of the week in Islam. "We decided to open the mosque because so many people had gathered. We did not want an incident," a policeman outside the White Mosque in a Uighur neighbourhood told the AP news agency. After the prayers, riot police punched and kicked a small group of Uighurs protesters, who demanded the release of men detained after last Sunday's violence, the BBC's Quentin Sommerville says. Meanwhile, the city's main bus station was reported to be crowded with people trying to escape the unrest. Extra bus services had been laid on and touts were charging up to five times the normal face price for tickets, AFP news agency said. "It is just too risky to stay here. We are scared of the violence," a 23-year-old construction worker from central China said. The violence began on Sunday when a Uighur rally to protest against a deadly brawl between Uighurs and Han Chinese several weeks ago in a toy factory in southern Guangdong province turned violent. Tensions have been growing in Xinjiang for many years, as Han migrants have poured into the region, where the Uighur minority is concentrated. Many Uighurs feel economic growth has bypassed them and complain of discrimination and diminished opportunities. Source: BBC
 The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on its website that Mr Hu had left for China "due to the situation" in energy-rich Xinjiang, which borders central Asia, where 156 people have been killed, 1080 injured and 1434 arrested in unrest between Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs since Sunday.
State Councillor Dai Bingguo will attend the G8 summit in Mr Hu's place, the ministry added.
The summit was due to open in the central Italian city of L'Aquila later today and Mr Hu had been scheduled to join the talks tomorrow. He arrived in Italy on Sunday and has visited Florence.
Urumqi, Xinjiang's regional capital, woke up today after an overnight curfew that authorities imposed after thousands of Han Chinese stormed through its streets demanding redress and sometimes extracting bloody vengeance for Sunday's violence.
The city was quiet, except for soldiers shouting in unison as they went about their morning exercises.
Squads of anti-riot police blocked off main streets, while armored personnel carriers cruised back and forth.
Late yesterday, mobs of Han Chinese wielding clubs, metal bars, cleavers and axes had melted away, but many said Sunday's killings had left a lasting stain of anger.
Li Yufang, a Han who owns a clothes store in Urumqi, said he was still outraged by what had happened over the weekend, and wanted to protest again, although he admitted it was unlikely amid the heavy presence of troops.
"I couldn't sleep last night I was so angry," he said, clutching a club and what appeared to be a carving knife wrapped in a black plastic bag.
"Uighurs are spoiled like pandas. When they steal, rob, rape or kill, they can get away with it. If we Han did the same thing, we'd be executed," Li added, as a friend standing next to him nodded in agreement.
On the other side of Urumqi's now tensely divided neighborhoods, Uighurs protested yesterday, defying rows of anti-riot police and telling reporters that their husbands, brothers and sons had been taken away in indiscriminate arrests.
Xinjiang has long been a tightly controlled hotbed of ethnic tensions, fostered by an economic gap between many Uighurs and Han Chinese, government controls on religion and culture and an influx of Han migrants who now are the majority in most key cities, including Urumqi.
But controlling the torrid anger on both sides of the region's ethnic divide will now make controlling Xinjiang, with its gas reserves and trade and energy ties to central Asia, all the more testing for the ruling Communist Party.
The government has sought to bridge that divide by blaming the Sunday killings on exiled Uighurs seeking independence for their homeland, especially Rebiya Kadeer, a businesswoman and activist now living in exile in the United States.
Kadeer, writing in the Asian Wall Street Journal yesterday, condemned the violence on both sides, and again denied being the cause of the unrest.
"Years of Chinese repression of Uighurs topped by a confirmation that Chinese officials have no interest in observing the rule of law when Uighurs are concerned is the cause of the current Uighur discontent," she wrote.
The Communist Party boss of Xinjiang, Wang Lequan, sought to press forward that effort in a speech broadcast on regional TV and handed out as a leaflet to Urumqi residents late yesterday.
"This was a massive conspiracy by hostile forces at home and abroad, and their goal was precisely to sabotage ethnic unity and provoke ethnic antagonism," said Wang.
"Point the spear toward hostile forces at home and abroad, toward the criminals who took part in attacking, smashing and looting, and by no means point it toward our own ethnic brothers," he said, referring to Uighurs.
Uighurs, a Turkic people who are largely Muslim and share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia, make up almost half of Xinjiang's 20 million people. The population of Urumqi, which lies about 3300km west of Beijing, is mostly Han.
 Two women comfort each other
in Urumqi during the deadly ethnic violence.July 07 THE US and UN chief Ban Ki-moon led international calls for restraint after unrest in China's restive Xinjiang region left at least 156 people dead. The White House said it was “deeply concerned” about the reports of deaths in the western region's capital Urumqi. “We call on all in Xinjiang to exercise restraint,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a brief statement issued in Moscow, where US President Barack Obama was on an official visit. China said that at least 156 people were killed on Sunday when Muslim Uighurs rioted in some of the deadliest ethnic unrest to have hit the country for decades. The violence in Urumqi on Sunday involved thousands of people and triggered an enormous security crackdown across Xinjiang, where tension has long simmered amid Uighur claims of repressive Chinese rule. US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said he expected the region's violence to be discussed in a meeting between Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and visiting Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei. “I'm sure that we'll raise some of these concerns that we have about the violence in Xinjiang the last few days,” Kelly said. The UN secretary general said, “Wherever it is happening or has happened the position of the United Nations and the secretary general has been consistent and clear: that all the differences of opinion, whether domestic or international, must be resolved peacefully through dialogue. “Governments concerned must also exercise extreme care and take necessary measures to protect the life and safety of the civilian population and their citizens and their properties, and protect freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of information,” he told a news conference in Geneva. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said London was concerned about the reports of violence and called for problems in Xinjiang to be resolved through dialogue. “Of course we are concerned about the reports of violence and the scale of the loss of life and I think we would urge restraint on all sides and, where possible, for problems to be resolved through dialogue,” the spokesman said. The president of the European parliament, Hans Gert Poettering, called on Chinese authorities to respect human rights. “The news which is emerging of how these protests have been handled is deeply disturbing,” he said in a statement. “I appeal to all sides for calm and restraint.” “I explicitly appeal to the Chinese authorities to act in a manner that fully respects human dignity and fundamental human rights, including the right to freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration,” he said. “I also appeal to the Chinese authorities to allow local and international media to carry out their work in full freedom, including unrestricted access to the internet,” he added. Protesters in The Hague lashed out at the Chinese embassy. Dutch police said they detained about 60 people protesting outside the Chinese embassy in The Hague. Rocks and cobble stones were hurled over the walls around the building and several windows were broken. About 200 people took part in the demonstration which was called by an association of Muslim Uighurs in the Netherlands. They brandished flags and banners reading “Chinese go back to China” and shouted “Terrorist China” when being whisked away by police cars and buses to the main police station. Turkey called on China to punish those responsible for the violence in the Turkic-speaking region. “We expect that those who triggered the incidents be determined at once and that they be brought to justice,” a brief foreign ministry statement said. Many Uighurs have sought refuge in Turkey, where some Islamist and nationalist groups support demands for an independent Uighur homeland, which they refer to as East Turkestan. The troubles hit as President Hu Jintao started a visit to Italy ahead of the Group of Eight industrialised powers summit this week. Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano raised the sensitive question of human rights during talks. “We agreed that the ... economic and social progress that is being achieved in China places new demands in terms of human rights,” Napolitano said at a news conference with Hu.
 Firemen put out a fire in Dawannanlu Street in Urumqi, capital of northwest
China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on July 5, 2009. (Xinhua/Shen Qiao)With the exception of Yan'an Road, Tuanjie Road, a road near Xinjiang University, and Ningxiawan in the suburbs of Urumqi, blockades in downtown Urumqi have been removed. Debris has been cleared from the roads and normal traffic has resumed. Workers are still pulling away damaged vehicles from the worst-affected roads in the city. But most shops in areas where the violence occurred remained closed as of Monday morning. At a market on Guangming Road, only ten stalls selling vegetables and fruit opened Monday morning, compared with dozens of stalls on normal days. The market is usually crowded. Li Guifang, a resident near the market, said they had heard the violence last night and few residents came to the market in the morning. Armed police are patrolling streets that are still blockaded. In Ningxiawan, firefighters were still struggling to put out a fire at a shop Monday morning. Residents in Urumqi said they still felt no sense of safety although the order was being restored. A young couple, who witnessed the violent scene in Ningxiawan, said they had "little sense of safety and would leave the area quickly." The couple, from Korla, southwest of Urumqi, said they had planned to buy a house in the capital city. A total of 129 people were killed and 816 others injured in the violence in Urumqi, when rioters took to the street with knives, wooden batons, bricks and stones at around 7 p.m. Sunday, according to the regional government. The rioters also vandalized vehicles and buildings. Death toll in Xinjiang riot rises to 140, still climbingSource: Xinhua
 Three Chinese ethnic Uighurs eat ice cream in Bermuda after their release from Guantanamo Bay. Picture: AP Now, suddenly set free in Bermuda, the former terror suspects can watch the ocean at leisure from the pastel-pink clifftop holiday cottage where they are staying at US taxpayers' expense. They have already taken a sunset swim and caught a fish at their first attempt at fishing. They have also reverted to their real names after using pseudonyms since leaving China. The four fled to Afghanistan to escape political oppression in the poverty-stricken Xinjiang province of western China and then escaped from US bombing to the tribal regions of Pakistan, before being taken to Guantanamo. Now they are at leisure to marvel at the natural splendour of Britain's oldest colony. "This is the first time I have seen such a beautiful place," Abdullah Abdulqadir, 30, said. "Our feelings are incredible. We did not think we were going to be this happy." The four former Guantanamo inmates - members of China's Muslim Turkic-speaking Uighur minority - are dreaming of opening the first Uighur restaurant, serving noodles and lamb in the millionaires' playground. "Uighur food is delicious. These kind and generous people of Bermuda, we want to do something for them. Of course, we want to have a Uighur restaurant," Mr Abdulqadir said. Before setting up their own business, however, they will have to learn to fend for themselves. They got their watches back when they left Guantanamo and kept their copy of the Koran, but are penniless. Their Uighur translator is leaving tomorrow and they will have to rely on their Bermudan government minder. In several weeks, the four will enter a government foreign worker programme to save up some money. Bermudian officials say they have already received five job offers for the men. The 800-strong Muslim community on the 70,000-person island has pledged to welcome them. Britain is still conducting a "security assessment" on the men - Mr Abdulqadir, 30; Khalil Mamut, 31; Salahidin Abdulahat, 32, and Ablikim Turahan, 38 - before deciding whether to challenge the Bermudan Government's decision to admit them. The Uighurs insist they are not part of any terror group, have never met Osama bin Laden, and had never heard of al-Qaeda until they got to Guantanamo. "I'm not terrorist," Mr Mamut said in broken English learned from his US guards. "I've not been a terrorist. I'll never be terrorist. I want to live peacefully." Read more here,,,
Two lawmakers of President Barack Obama's Democratic Party appealed Thursday to let Uighurs locked up at Guantanamo Bay move to the United States, saying they were victims of injustice. The plea came despite an overwhelming Senate vote a day earlier to block money to transfer inmates out of the deeply controversial "war on terror" prison in Cuba, which Obama on Thursday vowed again to shut down. US authorities four years ago cleared 17 imprisoned Uighurs -- members of a largely Muslim group in northwestern China who the State Department says face worsening persecution by Beijing. But they are stuck at Guantanamo Bay due to fears that Beijing would torture them if they return. The United States has asked Germany, home to a large Uighur community, to take them in. "We cannot expect the world to miraculously resolve this problem of our own making," Congressman Jim McGovern said. Read more ...Source: AFPJim McGovern
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BEIJING — Nine men have been executed for taking part in ethnic rioting that left nearly 200 people dead in July, the first suspects put to death in the unrest, Chinese state media reported Monday. 
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