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URUMQI, China - Violence in the capital of China's volatile Xinjiang region killed 140 people and injured 828, an official said Monday, following rioting by members of a Muslim ethnic group and a police crackdown on their demonstrations.
The official toll makes the unrest the deadliest single incident of unrest in Xinjiang in recent decades.
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The official Xinhua News Agency also said 140 people died and that the death toll "was still climbing."
Tensions between Uighurs and the majority Han Chinese are never far from the surface in Xinjiang, China's vast Central Asian buffer province, where militant Uighurs have waged sporadic, violent separatist campaign. The overwhelming majority of Urumqi's 2.3 million people are Han Chinese.
State television aired footage that showed protesters attacking and kicking people on the ground. Other people sat dazed with blood pouring down their faces.
A witness who left Urumqi on Monday morning confirmed to NBC News a large presence of Chinese troops in parts of the city.
Mobile phone service provided by at least one company was cut Monday to stop people from organizing further action in Xinjiang.
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China: 140 killed in riots in west - China- msnbc.com
The protests in Xinjiang are a continuation of a protracted struggle between the Chinese and the subjugated peoples to their west and southwest. The situation in Xinjiang is exacerbated by the fact that the Uighur oeioke, who are of Turkic descent, are almost all Muslims nd their religious observances have been suppressed by the Communist government.
The struggle for human freedom is long and often bloody, but even the most repressive states are finding it increasingly difficult to deny the aspirations of the people.
07-06-2009
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