The disturbance seems have been caused by the video on the internet of a person based to death in Southern China. If the television reports are to be believed it seems that local Uighurs took revenge in Urumqi, the capital city.
Stephen McDonell for the ABC reports:
Xinjiang's regional government has blamed international activists for planning the protest.
"This is a typical incident of beating, smashing and looting ordered by overseas forces. It was premeditated, planned and organised," Governor of Xinjiang Autonomous Region Nur Bekri said.
This year is the 60th anniversary of Xinjiang's re-incorporation into China; the government calls it the "peaceful liberation of Xinjiang" but many Uighurs still do not accept Beijing's rule.
Chinese authorities have warned that today's type of conflict could increase because of Xinjiang's strategic location on the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
They are worried that if Uighur separatist groups link up with the separatists in Pakistan, they could have a much more serious armed conflict in western China.
Stephen McDonell also observes that what Uighurs he has spoken to say publically and privately is contradictory. Authorities, as they did in Iran, are similarly, so it is reported, shutting down the internet to prevent pictures of the demonstrations being circulated.
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