Kyrgyzstan Uighur leaders detained after protest
Mon Aug 10, 2009 7:40am EDT


By Olga Dzyubenko

BISHKEK, Aug 10 (Reuters) - Kyrgyzstan's police detained two Uighur community leaders after they accused China of "state terrorism" at a rally on Monday and called for an independent investigation of last month's clashes in neighbouring Xinjiang.

About 500 Uighurs gathered at a building on the outskirts of the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek with photographs posted to the walls showing what they said was abuse of their kinfolk in China.

The pictures portrayed people being beaten up and held at gunpoint as well as unconscious or dead people lying in the streets.

In Xinjiang's worst ethnic unrest in decades, Uighurs staged protests in the regional capital Urumqi on July 5 after two Uighurs were killed in a clash at a factory in south China in June.

The violence left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 wounded, mostly Han Chinese who launched revenge attacks in Urumqi days later, according to the Chinese government.

About 1,000 people, mostly Uighurs, have been detained in a government crackdown.

"The Chinese started mass pogroms on June 26, scores of people have been killed, but the Chinese government is concealing those facts," Dilmurat Akbarov, the head of local Uighur society Ittipak (Unity), told a meeting.

"We demand that those responsible are punished."

People in the crowd chanted "Freedom to Uighurs" and banners reading "We accuse China of state terrorism against the Uighur people" hung on the walls.

The police did not interfere but detained Akbarov and his deputy Zhamaldin Nasyrov after the protest was over.

Kyrgyzstan's ombudsman Tursunbek Akun, who was present at the rally, told reporters Akbarov and Nasyrov were held for staging a rally not sanctioned by the government.

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSLA189360