Chinese Police 'arrest 90' in unsettled region

Authorities have arrested more than 90 members of a Muslim ethnic minority in China’s far west and are torturing some of them following a series of bombings that left a dozen people dead, an activist alleged today.

In the second attack in the restive region of Xinjiang in a week, bombers hit 17 sites – including a police station, government building, bank and shops – in the mostly Muslim city of Kuqa early Sunday.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the Germany-based, pro-independence World Uighur Congress, said Uighurs in Kuqa have called with reports of police torturing detainees.

He said in an e-mail that more than 90 people have been detained, with others arrested in surrounding areas.

“I oppose the use of violence by both sides,” Mr Raxit said. “The international society should immediately get involved and demand that China stop the repression.”

At a news conference today, county chief Yusufujiang Maimaiti said “there was not an ounce of truth” to Mr Raxit’s torture allegations, but he would not say whether any arrests had been made.

Life in the Silk Road city had returned to normal by yesterday, with donkeys pulling melon-laden carts through the streets and women selling bowls of yoghurt in the market.

But the calm surface hides seething anger among the Uighurs toward Chinese immigrants, seen by many as symbols of government oppression, residents and experts say.

With two audacious attacks in a week and the appearance online of videos threatening the Beijing Olympics, Uighur extremists in Xinjiang may be trying to use the games as a way to force themselves out of obscurity into the world’s view.