Chinese troops on alert one year after violence

BEIJING - Teams of police patrolled streets in the western region of Xinjiang last night as stringent security was imposed for the one-year anniversary of China's worst ethnic violence in decades.

An ethnic Han Chinese man who runs the Little West Gate Family Hotel in the regional capital of Urumqi said there was a "noticeable increase in the number of police on the streets," and his family was staying indoors as a precaution.

The man, who would only give his surname Zhang, said shoppers had to go through airport-style security checks at the open air market in the city's centre.

A receptionist surnamed Fang at the Yilong Hotel in the regional capital of Urumqi said that bags were being checked at airports, train stations, bus stops and government offices.

Long-standing tensions between Xinjiang's minority Uighurs and majority Han Chinese migrants flared into open violence in Urumqi one year ago. The Government said 197 people were killed in the unrest, which was triggered by the deaths of Uighur factory workers in the country's south.

After the July 5 bloodshed, the Government suspended the region's internet and international telephone and text messaging links for more than half a year.

Beijing - which accused overseas Uighur groups of plotting the violence, something they deny - arrested hundreds of people and sentenced about two dozen to death.

Overseas Uighur activist Dilxat Raxit said yesterday that people in Xinjiang had told his organisation by telephone that they had been warned not to hold any ceremonies mourning those who died a year ago.

"Many people had planned to mark the occasion, which is traditional to do a year after people have died, but word came through the various neighbourhood work committees that it wasn't allowed," he said.

Raxit, a spokesman for the Germany-based World Uyghur Congress, also reiterated his group's appeal for China to allow an independent investigation into the riots.

Xinjiang's public security bureau said that residents were going about their business as usual, following campaigns to seize illegal weapons and explosives and increased security in areas with higher rates of crime. It did not give details.

A public security spokeswoman reached yesterday said that the situation in the region was "normal" but wouldn't elaborate.

China's leaders say all ethnic groups are treated equally and point to the billions of dollars in investment that has modernised Xinjiang, a strategically vital region with significant oil and gas deposits.

But authorities have been accused of alienating the Uighurs, Turkic Muslims who are ethnically and linguistically distinct from the Han majority, with tight restrictions on cultural and religious expression and nonviolent dissent.

Many Uighurs say they suffer discrimination in jobs and cannot get loans and passports.

- AP