Xinjiang Riot Death Toll Hits 156 as Unrest Spreads; Indiscriminate Arrests
July 7th, 2009These are Chinese government numbers.
Via: Reuters:
Chinese police have arrested more than 1,400 people following rioting in the capital of Muslim Xinjiang region which left 156 people dead and more than 800 injured, state media said on Tuesday.
While there were some reports that the violence had spread elsewhere in the region, Xinjiang’s Communist Party boss said the unrest had been quelled, although he warned “this struggle is far from over.”
Calm had settled over Urumqi, the region’s capital, after 20,000 police, troops and firefighters reclaimed the streets from rioters who burned and smashed vehicles and shops on Sunday night.
Xinjiang’s state-run media quoted the regional Communist Party boss Wang Lequan as calling for officials to launch “a struggle against separatism.”
Some Xinjiang newspapers also carried graphic pictures of the violence, including corpses, at least one of which showed a woman whose throat had been slashed.
A total of 1,434 people had been detained, state news agency Xinhua reported, although local residents told Reuters that police were making indiscriminate sweeps of Uighur areas.
