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Officials reject Rebiya's claims of unrest

By Cui Jia (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-09 19:08

The claims made by the separatist World Uyghur Congress leader Rebiya Kadeer that the cities of Kashgar, Yarkand, Aksu, Khotan and Karamay in the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region had also seen unrest are untrue, officials have said.

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"There were signs of unrests in Kashgar and Yarkand, northwest of the region, but we had the situation under control before they escalated," Chen Li, director of the information office of the Kashgar region, told China Daily Thursday.

Similarly, the officials from information offices in Aksu, Khotan and Karamay all said there were no sign of unrests after security of the cities had been tightened following the riots in the region's capital of Urumqi.

In response to the violence in Urumqi, an article written by Kadeer was published by The Wall Street Journal on Wednesday. In it, she said "the unrest is spreading. The cities of Kashgar, Yarkand, Aksu, Khotan and Karamay may have also seen unrest, though it's hard to tell, given China's State-run propaganda".

Kadeer also alleged that police had killed more than 100 Uygurs while breaking up mass demonstrations in the city. She said troops had entered Kashgar, with two Chinese soldiers posted to each Uygur house.

However, the public security bureau of Kashgar issued a written statement to Xinhua, denying the allegations.

The statement said more than 200 people tried to gather at the Id Kah Mosque, the largest mosque in China, and created a "disturbance" there at about 5:15 pm on Monday.

Local security forces and armed police later rushed to the scene, "using vehicles mounted with loudspeakers to disperse the masses who were ignorant of facts" surrounding the previous day's violence in Urumqi, the statement said.

The authorities "reacted immediately to round up troublemakers and quell the incident", it said.

Police said they also dispersed the crowd at about 6 pm with no deaths or injuries.