At least 192 people were killed in the ethnic clashes in western China. Photo Courtesy: AFP.
Deadly ethnic unrest in China's Muslim Xinjiang region was planned and coordinated in a bid to ignite violence across the regional capital Urumqi, state media reported on Sunday.
A report by the official Xinhua News Agencysaid rioters involved in the July 5 violence, China's worst ethnic unrest in decades, appeared to have prepared weapons in the days leading up to the unrest which left at least 192 dead.
* China says police killed 12 in Urumqi rioting
Earlier on Sunday, the agency had quoted the chair of Xinjiang's government, Nur Bekri, saying police had shot dead 12 rioters amid the mayhem.
China has said the attacks by members of Xinjiang's Uighur minority, which targeted members of China's dominant Han ethnic group, were orchestrated by exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer.
Kadeer, who is based in the United States, has denied the accusation.
Xinhua made no mention of Uighur claims that the riots were touched off by a harsh police response to peaceful protests by Uighurs upset over a recent factory brawl in southern China that left two Uighurs dead.
Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking central Asian people, complain of repression under Chinese rule.
Instead, Xinhua said rioters instigated violent acts in more than 50 locations throughout Urumqi, suggesting that weapons were stockpiled ahead of time. "Knives became hot-selling products two or three days before the unrest," it said, citing local businesses.
It also said stones that were hurled at targets or used to bludgeon victims were not of the sort commonly found in Urumqi, implying they had been trucked into the city in large numbers beforehand.
Rioters also appeared to have a surprisingly keen knowledge of how to quickly ignite the fuel tanks of buses and other vehicles, Xinhua said.
The report, based mostly on the accounts of unnamed witnesses, provided no hard evidence for the claims.
Thousands of Han Chinese armed themselves with clubs and other weapons and marched through Urumqi seeking vengeance on Uighurs in the days after the unrest, but were mostly thwarted by a huge security force
A report by the official Xinhua News Agencysaid rioters involved in the July 5 violence, China's worst ethnic unrest in decades, appeared to have prepared weapons in the days leading up to the unrest which left at least 192 dead.
* China says police killed 12 in Urumqi rioting
Earlier on Sunday, the agency had quoted the chair of Xinjiang's government, Nur Bekri, saying police had shot dead 12 rioters amid the mayhem.
China has said the attacks by members of Xinjiang's Uighur minority, which targeted members of China's dominant Han ethnic group, were orchestrated by exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer.
Kadeer, who is based in the United States, has denied the accusation.
Xinhua made no mention of Uighur claims that the riots were touched off by a harsh police response to peaceful protests by Uighurs upset over a recent factory brawl in southern China that left two Uighurs dead.
Many Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking central Asian people, complain of repression under Chinese rule.
Instead, Xinhua said rioters instigated violent acts in more than 50 locations throughout Urumqi, suggesting that weapons were stockpiled ahead of time. "Knives became hot-selling products two or three days before the unrest," it said, citing local businesses.
It also said stones that were hurled at targets or used to bludgeon victims were not of the sort commonly found in Urumqi, implying they had been trucked into the city in large numbers beforehand.
Rioters also appeared to have a surprisingly keen knowledge of how to quickly ignite the fuel tanks of buses and other vehicles, Xinhua said.
The report, based mostly on the accounts of unnamed witnesses, provided no hard evidence for the claims.
Thousands of Han Chinese armed themselves with clubs and other weapons and marched through Urumqi seeking vengeance on Uighurs in the days after the unrest, but were mostly thwarted by a huge security force
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