After Tibet, Xinjiang erupts - 140 killed, over 800 injured

Beijing: In what appears to be a massive eruption of public resentment, similar to the one that took place in Tibet last year around the time of the Beijing Olympics, ethnic Muslim Uighurs in the western China desert region of Xinjiang have clashed heavily with Chinese paramilitary and Han Chinese in the capital city of Urumqui. Chinese state-owned media have put casualty figures at 140 dead and 816 injured.

Apparently, clashes have followed days of rising tensions between both communities.

If correct, the casualty toll would make it the deadliest eruption of ethnic violence in China in many years, dwarfing even the Tibetan clashes of the previous year, which left 19 people dead - mainly Han Chinese.

Early Monday, Chinese officials claimed that the riots were started by Ms Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur human rights advocate based in Washington, who had earlier been imprisoned in China. The claim follows a pattern similar to that followed with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who is blamed for all ethnic unrest in Tibet.

Ms. Kadeer denies the charges.