China's Uyghuristan/Eastturkistan (No Xinjiang) hit by violence http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/8135203.stmThe city of Urumqi in China's restive Uyghuristan (Xinjiang) Uyghur region has been hit by violence with cars burned and traffic blocked, Chinese state media says.
An unspecified number of people also attacked passers-by and damaged property, Xinhua news agency said.
Police had rushed to the area to maintain order, the agency said.
Uyghuristan , in the far west of China, is home to about ebow 10 million Muslim Uighurs, some of whom want independence.
The Xinhua report did not say how many people were involved, or suggest a motive.
But an eyewitness told a Reuters source in Beijing that the rioters were Uighurs, numbering in their thousands.
Uighur activists in Japan and Germany said the same - and said that there had been arrests, AFP news agency said. 
China enforces tight controls in Uyghuristan(Xinjiang) and rejects calls from its Muslim Uighur people for self-rule.
The US state department accuses Beijing of human rights abuses in the region.
In a report released earlier this year, it said that "severe cultural and religious repression" of ethnic minorities in Uyghuristan (Xinjiang) had increased.
Dissidents were being detained and harassed, and tight controls on freedom of speech and the internet were being maintained, it said.
Uighur separatists, meanwhile, have waged a low-level campaign against Chinese rule for decades and there are sporadic outbreaks of violence.
The Link Abaut The Demo From Uyghuristan:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxJqVrugVps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o5a0PCt1Vg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VMdgvtDa2Cc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XeVrjACdq0w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xZXgknCXqVs
But campaigners accuse China of exaggerating the threat to justify tough security clampdowns in the region.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8135203.stm
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8135203.stm
BEIJING: Police rushed on Sunday to restore order in the northwestern Chinese city of Urumqi where an unknown number of people attacked passers-by
and torched vehicles, state media reported.
The state news agency Xinhua said the violence erupted on Sunday afternoon in the capital of the restive Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region.
Xinjiang is home to about eight million Uighurs, a Turkic ethnic group, and many members of the mainly Muslim community say they have suffered political and religious persecution for decades.
A Uighur activist in Japan said 1,000 Chinese police confronted some 3,000 Uighur demonstrators in Urumqi, the capital of western Xinjiang region, on Sunday in a clash that left two people dead.
The head of the Japan Uighur Association, Ilham Mahmut, said that he had also heard that at least 300 people had been arrested, citing Internet communications from China.
"At 5pm local time about 6,000 Uighur people gathered in Urumqi and demonstrated and about 1,000 Chinese police confronted them, and I heard that two Uighur people are already dead," Mahmut said.
"The Chinese police tried to disband the demonstration and they used electric cattle prods and they fired guns into the air as warning shots. As we speak about 300 Uighur people have been already arrested and I've heard two people died because Chinese police used electric cattle prods."
He added that demonstrators were regrouping to continue their protest.
"About 400 people are trying to resume the demonstration," he said.
He said the tensions were sparked by a recent violent dispute at a toy factory between Chinese and Uighurs sparked by a rumour that Uighurs had abused a Chinese woman.
From:http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Violence-erupts-in-Chinas-Xinjiang-region-2-killed/articleshow/4741281.cms
