Key leader of Eta Basque separatists held in France

One of the top leaders of the Basque separatist group Eta has been arrested in north-western France, the Spanish interior ministry has said.

Ibon Gogeascotxea was arrested with two other suspected Eta members in a French and Spanish operation in Normandy.

Madrid said the arrests had foiled a planned "commando" operation in Spain.

A militant group fighting for an independent Basque homeland, Eta has been blamed for more than 820 deaths during its 41-year campaign in Spain.

Eta called a short-lived truce in 2006, but broke it in December of that year.

Guggenheim plot

The Spanish interior ministry said Ibon Gogeascotxea was the "most senior" member of Eta and its military chief.

The arrests took place close to the small Normandy village of Cahan.

The Spanish interior ministry said the three arrested men had raised suspicion after renting a rural home with false identities and using a car with fake number plates.

Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said the operation was "very significant".

The other two men were named as Beinat Aguinalde Ugartemendia, 26, and Gregorio Jimenez Morales, 55.

Mr Rubalcaba said the pair "were part of a commando [unit] ready to enter Spain".

They had come to "say goodbye to the military chief, who gave them their final instructions as Eta has a habit of doing", Mr Rubalcaba said.

Ibon Gogeascotxea was born in 1965 and has been on the run since 1997 after members of the Eta group's Katu cell allegedly tried to kill King Juan Carlos when he attended the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao.

The cell is also wanted for attacks on Burgos and Majorca.

French and Spanish authorities have maintained close cooperation to try to track down Eta members.

Four suspected members of Eta were arrested in Portugal and France in January.

Three weeks ago Portuguese police also seized half a tonne of explosives at a house they said was being used as a base by Eta.

Although there have been a number of arrests of leaders, Eta has remained active - the group killed three Spanish police officers using car bombs in 2009.

In December, Spain raised its terror alert level to two on a four-point scale.

Mr Rubalcaba said that despite recent arrests, Spain did "not rule out an attack by Eta".

Eta is considered a terrorist organisation by the European Union and the US.

Iran opposition figures arrested after protests

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A number of opposition figures have been arrested in Iran, a day after at least eight people died during the most violent protests for months.

Those detained include aides to opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi and former President Mohammad Khatami.

Mr Mousavi's nephew, Seyed Ali Mousavi, was among those killed on Sunday.

State media said authorities were doing forensic tests on his and four other bodies, preventing the rapid burials that are usual under Islamic tradition.

The bodies had been "retained in order to complete forensic and police examinations and find more leads on this suspicious incident", the Irna news agency reported.

The Mousavi family had said earlier that Seyed Ali's body had been taken without their permission from the hospital where it was being held.

RECENT UNREST IN IRAN

19 Dec: Influential dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri dies aged 87

21 Dec: Tens of thousands attend his funeral in Qom; reports of clashes between opposition supporters and security forces

22 Dec: Further confrontations reported in Qom

23 Dec: More clashes reported in city of Isfahan as memorial is held

24 Dec: Iran reportedly bans further memorial services for Montazeri except in his birthplace and Qom

26 Dec: Clashes reported in central and northern Tehran

27 Dec: At least eight dead following anti-government protests in Tehran; 300 reported arrested

Opposition sources said the body had been taken by government agents in order to prevent his funeral becoming a rallying point for more protests.

An opposition website, Norooz, said police had fired tear gas on Monday to disperse a group of Mousavi supporters who were demonstrating outside the hospital.

According to Mr Mousavi's website, Seyed Ali Mousavi was shot in the back on Sunday as security forces fired on demonstrators in Tehran.

Intermittent protests in Iran following President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's controversial re-election in June have represented the biggest challenge to the government since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

Foreign media face severe restrictions in Iran, making reports hard to verify.

BBC Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne, reporting from London, says the government's immediate response to the latest confrontation has been to arrest senior opposition figures, as it did after protests against the disputed presidential elections in June.

The authorities are blaming troublemakers for the violence, our correspondent says, with the police denying that security forces are responsible for any deaths and suggesting that protesters may have shot each other.

The majority hardline block in the Iranian parliament called on "security and judiciary authorities to firmly deal with those who mock Ashura", referring to the Shia Muslim festival that reached its climax on Sunday.

But members of the opposition believe Seyed Ali Mousavi was deliberately targeted by the government in an attempt to intimidate Mir Hossein Mousavi.

Our correspondent adds that the government will be doing itself no favours if it has taken his body because this would outrage religious conservatives, as well as the opposition.

'Shameless act'

Among those reported arrested on Monday were opposition politician Ebrahim Yazdi, a foreign minister after the 1979 revolution and now leader of the Freedom Movement of Iran, his nephew, Lily Tavasoli.

Mr Yazdi's son Khalil, who lives in the US, told the BBC's World Today programme he believed the Iranian authorities wanted to close down all opposition groups.

"It is a shameless and irresponsible act," he said.

"Any opposition now, they want to shut [it] down. We're going down a one-way street that's now going downhill."

The Parlemannews website reported that three aides to Mir Hossein Mousavi had been arrested.

It also named two aides to reformist former President Mohammad Khatami as being among those rounded up by the authorities.

Mousavi Tebrizi, a senior cleric from the holy city of Qom who is close to Mr Mousavi, is also reported to have been arrested, as is human-rights campaigner and journalist Emeddin Baghi.

International condemnation

After Sunday's clashes, police fired tear gas to disperse crowds of demonstrators in various parts of Tehran overnight, according to reports.

On Monday, state-owned English-language Press TV said eight people had died. Earlier, Persian state television had reported at least 15 people killed.

The official death toll for Sunday's confrontation is the highest since June, and police said about 300 people had been detained.

Unconfirmed reports, later denied by a local prosecutor, said four people also died in protests in the north-western city of Tabriz. Clashes were also reported in Isfahan and Najafabad in central Iran and Shiraz in the south.

Moderate cleric Mehdi Karoubi, who came fourth in last June's election, criticised Iran's rulers for Sunday's violence, an opposition website reported.

The US, the UK, France, Germany and Canada have all condemned the violence.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said it was "particularly disturbing to hear accounts of the lack of restraint by the security forces" on a day of religious commemoration and reflection.

In a strongly-worded statement, German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised the "unacceptable actions of the security forces" and urged Tehran to respect civil rights.

Iranian security forces have been on alert since influential dissident cleric Grand Ayatollah Hoseyn Ali Montazeri died a week ago aged 87.

His funeral attracted tens of thousands of pro-reform supporters, many of whom shouted anti-government slogans.

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• Iran holds seven opposition activists (guardian.co.uk)
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Cuba detains contractor for U.S. government

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American was handing out mobile phones, laptops to activists

By William Booth and Mary Beth Sheridan
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, December 13, 2009

MEXICO CITY -- The Cuban government has arrested an American citizen working on contract for the U.S. Agency for International Development who was distributing cellphones and laptop computers to Cuban activists, State Department officials and congressional sources said Saturday.

The contractor, who has not been identified, works for Bethesda-based Development Alternatives. The company said in a statement that it was awarded a government contract last year to help USAID "support the rule of law and human rights, political competition and consensus building" in Cuba.

Consular officers with the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, the capital, are seeking access to the contractor, who was arrested Dec. 5. The charges have not been made public. Under Cuban law, however, a Cuban citizen or a foreign visitor can be arrested for nearly anything under the claim of "dangerousness."

The detention of an American contractor working for the U.S. government may raise tensions between the Castro brothers' communist government in Cuba and the Obama administration, which has been taking a "go-slow" approach to improving relations with the island.

The new U.S. policy stresses that if Cuba takes concrete steps such as freeing political prisoners and creating more space for opposition, the United States will reciprocate.

A senior Republican congressional aide said the American contractor was being held in a secure facility in Havana.

"It is bizarre they're just holding him and not letting us see him at all," said the aide, who was not authorized to speak on the record. Attempts to reach Cuban government officials to discuss the case were unsuccessful.

Cellphones and laptops are legal in Cuba, though they are new and coveted commodities in a country where the average worker's wage is $15 a month. The Cuban government granted ordinary citizens the right to buy cellphones just last year; they are used mostly for texting, because a 15-minute phone conversation would eat up a day's wages.

Internet use is extremely limited on the island. It is available in expensive hotels, where foreign visitors stay, and at some government facilities, such as universities. Cubans who want to log on often have to give their names to the government. Access to some Web sites is restricted.

A person familiar with the detained American's activity said he was "working with local organizations that were trying to connect with each other and get connected to the Internet and connect with their affinity groups in the U.S."

The person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the case, said Cuban authorities were aware of the project. "Why they picked on this situation," the person said, "is a bit of a mystery."

Cuba has a nascent blogging community, led by the popular commentator Yoani Sánchez, who often writes about how she and her husband are followed and harassed by government agents because of her Web posts. Sánchez has repeatedly applied for permission to leave the country to accept journalism awards, so far unsuccessfully.

"Counterrevolutionary activities," which include mild protests and critical writings, carry the risk of censure or arrest. Anti-government graffiti and speech are considered serious crimes.

"It should come as no surprise that the Cuban regime would lock up an American for distributing communications equipment," said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (Fla.), a Cuban American and the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

The detention of an American in Cuba is rare. The handful of U.S. citizens behind bars in Cuba are there for crimes such as drug smuggling, said Gloria Berbena, the press officer at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.

"An activity that in any other open society would be legal -- giving away free cellphones -- is in Cuba a crime," said José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Americas program of Human Rights Watch. The group recently issued a critical report on freedoms in Cuba called "New Castro, Same Cuba," a reference to installing Raúl Castro as president in place of his ailing older brother Fidel.

Human Rights Watch highlighted 40 cases, including that of Ramón Velásquez Toranzo, who was sentenced to three years in prison for "dangerousness" in 2007 after setting out on a peaceful protest march across Cuba.

Vivanco said that the accused in Cuba are often arrested, tried and imprisoned within a day. He said that any solution to the contractor's case would probably be political and that the Cuban government often provokes a negative reaction in the United States just as both countries begin to move toward more dialogue.

"Our prime concern is for the safety, well-being and quick return to the United States of the detained individual," said the contractor's boss, Jim Boomgard, chief executive officer of Development Alternatives.

Sheridan reported from Washington.

Israel Nabs Serial Attacker of Arabs, Leftist Jews - NYTimes.com

Image by antifluor via Flickr

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli authorities have arrested a Jewish-American extremist suspected of carrying out a series of high-profile hate crimes, security officials said Sunday.

Police and Shin Bet security forces say Jack Teitel, a 37-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish West Bank settler, was behind the killing of two Arabs, the targeting of a peace activist and an attack on a breakaway Jewish sect over a period of 12 years.

Authorities originally suspected an extremist Jewish underground for some of the attacks. But acquaintances described Teitel, a father of four, as a lone wolf, and authorities say he acted alone.

Jerusalem police commander Aharon Franco said Teitel immigrated to Israel from Florida, and that he grew up on U.S. military bases as the son of a dentist serving in the Marines.

Franco said a joint police and Shin Bet operation nabbed Teitel earlier this month and he confessed to the crimes and re-enacted them. Police also displayed photos of a large weapons cache seized from the suspect's home.

''He is like a serial killer. This guy was a Jewish terrorist who targeted different types of people,'' said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld. ''He was deeply involved in terrorism in all different levels.''

Results of the police investigation will be turned over to the state prosecutor to prepare an indictment.

In his most noted attack, Teitel is accused of sending a booby-trapped gift basket in March 2008 to the home of a family of American messianic Jews in Israel, who believe that Jesus is the Messiah but still consider themselves Jewish.

The explosion seriously wounded the family's 15-year-old son, Ami Ortiz, severing two toes, damaging his hearing and harming his promising basketball career.

''We are horrified by the fact that there are elements of Israeli society, Jews who feel justified in taking the lives of other Jews because of their beliefs,'' said Ami's mother, Leah Ortiz. ''We hope and pray that justice will be done in this case.''

Teitel is also accused of carrying out a pipe bomb attack in September 2008 that wounded a prominent Israeli professor and peace activist, Zeev Sternhell, an expert on the history of fascism who had spoken out against West Bank settlements.

Responding to news of the arrest, Sternhell said, ''I hope the system deals with this terrorist as it deals with all other terrorists, Jewish and Arab alike.''

Police also accused Teitel of killing a Palestinian taxi driver and a Palestinian farmer in 1997, and of stabbing and wounding an Arab in Jerusalem whom he suspected of making sexual advances. He also attempted to bomb police stations and patrols because they provided security for gay pride parades.

Such hate crimes are relatively rare in Israel. The most notable Israeli hate criminals were Ami Popper, who killed seven Palestinian laborers at an Israeli bus stop in 1990, and Yona Avrushmi, who threw a grenade into a peace rally in 1983, killing a participant.

Teitel is not suspected of being responsible for the shooting attack against a gay youth center in Tel Aviv in August, in which two people were killed, though police said he confessed to that attack as well.

Teitel arrived in Israel from the U.S. a decade ago and has lived in the West Bank settlement of Shvut Rachel, north of Jerusalem, for the past six years, his brother-in-law Moshe Avitan said.

Avitan said Teitel was a loner who spoke no Hebrew and rarely expressed political opinions. He worked from home in the computer field and has a degree in business.

Teitel's lawyer, Adi Keidar, told Israel's Channel 2 TV that his client is ''mentally disturbed.''

Iran Said to Arrest Prominent Detainees’ Wives - NYTimes.com

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By NAZILA FATHI

Iranian authorities arrested the wives and family members of a number of high-profile political detainees at a religious ceremony in Tehran, several reformist Web sites reported Friday.

The raid happened Thursday after the family members of one detainee, Shahab Tabatabee, announced on the Web site Norooz News that they were holding a prayer ceremony for his release. Mr. Tabatabee, a member of the reformist party Islamic Iran Participation Front, was sentenced to five years in prison last week.

The police raided the ceremony at a private home a few minutes after it began, according to a relative of some of the people who were arrested.

Officers arrested nearly all the guests except for several young women who were attending with infants and toddlers.

There were conflicting reports on the Web sites as to the number arrested. The relative, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said 60 people had been arrested, which would make it the largest mass arrest in recent months.

Two senior clerics, Grand Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri and Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sanei, denounced the raid, opposition Web sites reported. At least three opposition Web sites reported the arrests, each citing witnesses.

The wife of Abdullah Ramezanzadeh, a prominent prisoner who was the government spokesman under former President Mohammad Khatami, and the wives of several former members of Parliament were among the detainees.

About 10 people were released Friday. About a dozen others were transferred to the notorious Evin prison, the relative said.

He said the raid had been carried out under a warrant issued by the prosecutor general.

The arrests appeared to be a warning to the families of the detainees, who have been vocal in their opposition to the arrests.

Many reformist politicians were arrested immediately after the disputed June 12 elections, in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad claimed a landslide victory.

His re-election set off some of the largest protests since the 1979 revolution, and his opponents have accused him of rigging the results.

More than 100 people, including reform activists and journalists, are still in jail, and their relatives have said most were being held in solitary confinement with limited access to their families or lawyer.

The government has been unable to extinguish the protests despite mass arrests and a violent crackdown. The opposition has hijacked government-backed rallies and religious ceremonies in the past months as an opportunity to stage protests.

Authorities hinted this month that they might try to arrest the opposition leaders Mir Hussein Moussavi and Mehdi Karroubi in an effort to stop the protests.

Some 100 hard-line members of Parliament signed a petition last week against Mr. Moussavi, laying the groundwork for his arrest. One of the signers, Mohammad Taqi Rahbar, told state-run television that the complaint was aimed at stopping Mr. Moussavi from planning a protest scheduled for Nov. 3.

The Special Court of Clergy also said last week that it was looking into charges against Mr. Karroubi.

On Friday, Mr. Karroubi was attacked by baton-wielding vigilantes when he visited a media exhibition in Tehran, the student Web site Advarnews reported.

Mr. Karroubi’s white turban was knocked off, and the official Fars news agency carried a photo showing a shoe being tossed at him.

Indonesian police arrest two suspected terrorism financiers

Wednesday, August 19, 2009 21:59 WIB

Jakarta (ANTARA News) - Police have arrested two men in West Java on suspicion of being financiers of terrorist activity in Indonesia, a spokesman said.

The head of the National Police Headquarters` public relations division, Inspector General Nanan Soekarna, said here Wednesday he could not yet say the two men were really involved in terrorism because their questioning was still in progress.

The two men, identified only as Ali and Iwan, were arrested over the weekend respectively in Nagrek and Kuningan, West Java.

Based on Law Number 15 of 2003 on terrorism crimes the police are allowed to hold suspects for seven days.

If within the seven days, police could not find evidence of their involvement, they must be released but if there was strong evidence, police could detain them longer.

"There was information they planned to open an internet kiosk but an investigation is still underway to confirm if they really wanted to open the business or had other plans," he said.

Nanan said the police could not yet confirm Ali`s nationality, which seemed to be Saudi.

"We still have yet to confirm if he is really a Saudi national or he had just made it up," he said.

Nanan admitted the police had difficulty tracing the source of funds for terrorist activity because it appeared the money was not channeled through the banking system.

Therefore, the Center of Financial Transaction Analysis and Reporting (PPATK) also faced difficulties tracing them, he said.

"If all transactions are done through banks they can be detected by PPATK. However if they are not, they cannot be monitored," he said.

Pakistan Taliban spokesman 'held'

Pakistan's army has arrested a man it believes to be the chief spokesman for the country's Taliban, officials say.

Maulvi Omar was a spokesman for the Tehrik Taliban Pakistan (TTP), one of the main Taliban groups in the country.

He was reportedly picked up in the Mohmand tribal area close to the border with Afghanistan, while travelling in a car with two associates.

Mr Omar is said to have been a key aide of Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, thought to have been killed recently.

Pakistani officials say they will produce Mr Omar before journalists later on Tuesday.

"A very, very important militant has been arrested," Maj Fazal Ur Rehman told the AFP news agency.

Despite that statement, correspondents say Maulvi Omar's importance has diminished in recent weeks because of army advances in his stronghold of Bajaur, in north-western Pakistan.

His arrest came as a senior Pakistani army officer said that it would take months to prepare an offensive against the Taliban in South Waziristan, where they are strongest.

Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed was speaking after briefing the visiting US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke.

He said the army was short of "the right kind of equipment" in the offensive against militants in the north-west.

Problems remain

The arrest follows a concerted military offensive against the Taliban in the Swat valley region of Pakistan's North West Frontier Province.

Maulvi Omar comes from Bajaur, a tribal area in the North West where the Taliban established themselves early on.

Pakistani security forces have clashed with militants recently in nearby Mohmand, which is currently controlled by the Taliban.

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool, in Islamabad, says Maulvi Omar's detention will be seen as another success for the Pakistani military.

He was a senior aide to Baitullah Mehsud, and Pakistan will be hoping the removal of key leadership figures will plunge the Taliban into disarray, our correspondent says.

They are already on the back foot with the defeat in Swat and the reported death of Baitullah Mehsud, head of the organization.

Despite denials, there has been no clear proof yet from the Taliban that their leader is still alive.

While Maulvi Umar's position is not as vital, he is remains of significance primarily for two reasons.

He has been acting as a liaison between the various Taliban groups to settle differences.

Maulvi Umar also had strong connections in the media, and was a key figure in the Taliban's propaganda campaigns.

Correspondents say that his arrest may provide key information about the Taliban's recent operations and especially the mystery surrounding the status of Baitullah Mehsud.

Islamabad and Washington say Baitullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone attack earlier this month.

Nevertheless, the infrastructure through which militants have been recruited and trained remains in place.

There has been a surge of violence in the north-west since the army launched a summer operation to dislodge Taliban militants from their strongholds there.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/south_asia/8206489.stm

Published: 2009/08/18

Somalis Gather to Discuss Racism, Alienation in Australia

By Phil Mercer Sydney 17 August 2009

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Young Somali immigrants say they face racism and feel unwanted in Australia. Their problems have drawn more attention since four men from Somali backgrounds were charged with planning a suicide attack on an army base in Sydney.

Community groups say that Somali refugees often are stuck in a kind of "no-man's land" between their own culture and mainstream Australia.

The Somali immigrant community suffers high unemployment. Many refugees have problems learning English or experience the lingering effects of torture and trauma. Alienation can leave some vulnerable to the influence of criminals and extremists.

Others complain of racism from mainstream Australia.

Young Somalis wrapped up a meeting Sunday to discuss these issues in Melbourne, where a series of counter-terrorism raids were carried out earlier this month.

Kamal Mohamed, who is a student, says the arrest of four Somali-born Australians in the raids will only heighten society's suspicions of him and his peers.

"Before this issue happened, terrorism claims and all that, we were slowly integrating, but now we're not integrating, it's just full stop now, there's no integration, because people have already judged us," he said.

Police also are investigating allegations that some young Somalis have traveled back to Africa from Australia to fight for radical Islamic groups.

Tens of thousands of African refugees have resettled in Australia - most arriving from Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Burundi, Liberia and Somalia.

This year about 13,500 refugee visas will be issues and while millions of dollars are spent by the government helping newcomers to adapt to life in a strange, new country.

Despite efforts to help the transition, some African refugees have been accused of forming gangs, harassing women and committing violent crime.

Community leaders admit that a small minority has gotten into trouble but they say the majority has nothing but respect for Australian laws and customs.

Nigeria Police Raid Muslim Sect

Nigerian police have raided an isolated Muslim community in the western state of Niger, taking more than 600 people into custody.

A team of 1,000 officers took part in the Saturday morning raid on the Darul Islam community, local media say.

Police say no weapons were found and there was no resistance to the arrests.

The raid comes in the aftermath of the violent uprising of the Boko Haram Islamist group last month in which hundreds of people died.

A BBC correspondent says the authorities may be taking this opportunity to disperse the Darul Islam (or House of Islam) community.

The settlement was established in the early 1990s to live according to strict Islamic principles, away from what they see as western decadence.

After the recent bloodshed involving Boko Haram in the northern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, Darul Islam came under official scrutiny.

One of the men taken away by the police told the BBC Hausa service they were being questioned at a secondary school in Makwa, the nearest town.

He said: "We have not eaten anything since we were brought here and we have women and children among us."

"It was a team of security officers including policemen and immigration officers, operating under the instruction of the federal police command, who came to our village."

The inclusion of immigration officers is important, according to Mannir Dan-Ali, editor-in-chief of the Nigerian newspaper Daily Trust.

"The authorities are trying to establish the identity and nationality of the members of the Darul Islam community," he says.

Mr Dan-Ali says those found not be from Niger state may be asked to return to their home states within Nigeria.

"Although the group have not been found to be engaged in anything against the law, the authorities appear to be keen to take this opportunity to disperse the community," he told the BBC.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/africa/8203832.stm

Published: 2009/08/16

Human Rights Activist Abducted in Chechnya

GROZNY, Russia — The leader of a human rights group in Chechnya and her husband were abducted by armed men on Monday, members of two other groups said, adding to a sense of insecurity in the Russian region.

"Today, towards two o'clock, unidentified armed men got into the offices of Let's Save the Generation and abducted its leader, Zarema Sadulayeva, and her husband," said Alexander Cherkasov of Memorial, the Interfax news agency and Moscow Echo Radio reported.

"They have taken them away to an unknown destination. They came back into the NGO's office and took the mobile telephone and the car of the husband," he added.

They had no word on where they were, he added.

One of Memorial's own activists, Natalya Estemirova, was abducted and murdered in July, sparking an international outcry.

Another senior human rights worker and a former colleague of Sadulayeva told AFP earlier: "A gang came into her office around midday while she was working and then forced her into a car.

"There has been no news of her since," the colleague said, asking not to be named.

Cherkasov said the interior ministry and the Russian federal security service, the FSB, have been informed of the abductions.

Sadulayeva's husband, Alik Djibralov, had been jailed for four years for links to illegal armed groups, he said. He had married Sadulayeva two months after leaving prison, he added.

Let's Save the Generation works with young people in Chechnya who have been marginalised, helping them get back on their feet to prevent them joining any of the armed groups in the unstable region.

The body of Memorial's award-winning activist Estemirova was found shortly after she was seen being bundled into a car outside her home in the Chechen capital Grozny on July 15.

In the wake of her killing, Memorial chairman Oleg Orlov accused Chechnya's pro-Kremlin leader Ramzan Kadyrov of being responsible for the murder, irrespective of who ordered the crime.

He refuted the allegation on Monday, saying in an interview with Radio Svoboda, the Russian service of Radio Free Europe: "Why should Kadyrov kill a woman who was useful to no-one?

"She was devoid of honour, merit and conscience," he added.

Kadyrov is praised by the Kremlin for restoring some stability to the Caucasus region but is detested by human rights activists who accuse him of letting his personal militia carry out kidnappings and torture.

Cherkasov said that Kadyrov's comments showed that "he does not believe it is necessary to guarantee the security of rights activists in Chechnya."

After her death, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev praised Estemirova for speaking "the truth."

Deadly clashes between government forces and Islamist rebels are common in Chechnya, a predominantly Muslim region in the North Caucasus mountains.

The region was the scene of two wars between separatists and Russia's central government after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the insurgency has spilled over into neighbouring regions, taking a steady toll of lives.

Activist’s Detention Shakes China’s Rights Movement

By ANDREW JACOBS

BEIJING — China’s nascent legal rights movement, already reeling from a crackdown on crusading lawyers, the kidnapping of defense witnesses and the shuttering of a prominent legal clinic, has been shaken by the detention of a widely respected rights defender who has been incommunicado since the police led him away from his apartment 12 days ago.

Xu Zhiyong, 36, a soft-spoken and politically shrewd legal scholar who has made a name representing migrant workers, death row inmates and the parents of babies poisoned by tainted milk, is accused of tax evasion. The accusation is almost universally seen here as a cover for his true offense: angering the Communist Party leadership through his advocacy of the rule of law.

If convicted, he could face up to seven years in prison.

“We’re all shocked by his detention, because Xu Zhiyong has always tried to avoid taking on radical and politically sensitive cases,” said Teng Biao, a colleague. “His only interest is fighting for the rights of the vulnerable and trying to enhance China’s legal system.”

Mr. Teng helped Mr. Xu establish the Open Constitution Initiative, a six-year-old nonprofit legal center that the authorities closed last month, charging that it was improperly registered and that it failed to pay taxes.

Mr. Xu is not the first rights advocate in China to face the wrath of the authorities in recent years. Gao Zhisheng, a vocal lawyer, vanished into police custody six months ago, and Chen Guangcheng, a blind lawyer, was beaten and then jailed after exposing abuses in China’s birth-control program.

Although rights lawyers and grass-roots social organizations have always been tightly controlled here, the pressure has intensified in recent weeks. More than 20 lawyers known for taking on politically tinged cases were effectively disbarred, and the police raided a group that works to ease discrimination against people with Hepatitis B.

Last week, China’s justice minister gave a speech saying lawyers should above all obey the Communist Party and help foster a harmonious society. To improve discipline, the minister said, all law firms in China would be sent party liaisons to “guide their work.”

But given Mr. Xu’s international stature and reputation for working within the law, legal scholars both in China and abroad say his prosecution suggests a new level of repression.

“What makes his detention particularly disturbing is that he’s a special figure in so many ways,” said Paul Gewirtz, director of the China Law Center at Yale Law School, which helped Mr. Xu establish his legal center, known here by its Chinese name, Gongmeng. “He’s at the forefront of advancing the rule of law, which is something everyone agrees China needs for its ongoing development.”

After 30 years of reform, China’s legal system is at a critical juncture. Law schools continue to pump out thousands of graduates each year, and the courts, even if imperfect, have increasingly become a forum for resolving disputes. Late last month the Supreme People’s Court announced reforms intended to markedly reduce executions.

But as lawyers here discover, there are limits to China’s embrace of judicial reform.

The Constitution, which includes guarantees of free speech and human rights, is unenforceable in court. Judges routinely ignore evidence, making determinations based on political considerations. And when it comes to vaguely defined offenses like “subversion of state power” or the invoking of “state secrets” laws, even the best-trained lawyers are powerless to defend the accused.

He Weifang, a law professor and legal adviser to Gongmeng, said conservative forces in the Communist Party were increasingly wary of lawyers, who they suspect are ultimately seeking to challenge one-party rule. Their greatest fear, Mr. He said, is that advocacy lawyers and civil society organizations could one day lead a pro-democracy movement among the poor and disenfranchised citizens they represent.

“What the authorities don’t appreciate, though, is that lawyers are leading these people to the courts, where their complaints can be resolved by rule of law,” he said. “People like Xu Zhiyong can only help the government solve some of the problems it faces.”

According to Gongmeng, Mr. Xu is being held at the Beijing No. 1 Detention Center, although public security officials have not confirmed that he is in their custody. Peng Jian, a lawyer who is advising Gongmeng, said the authorities had imposed a $208,000 penalty for nonpayment of taxes due on funds received from Yale for cooperative research projects.

A day after the raid on Gongmeng’s office, Mr. Xu held a news conference to say that the accusations were baseless. He described the attack on his research center as a battle between corrupt officials and society’s most vulnerable citizens. “We believe conscience will surely triumph over the evil forces,” he said.

A week later, police officers came to his door and led him away. Another employee of the research center, Zhuang Lu, was also taken away the same day.

Soon after graduating from Peking University law school, Mr. Xu became immersed in the case of a graphic artist who was beaten to death in 2003 in police custody in the southern city of Guangzhou. The artist, Sun Zhigang, 27, had been arrested under vagrancy laws that allowed the police to detain people for traveling outside their registered hometowns without a permit.

Mr. Xu led a campaign to end the practice, which gained widespread media attention. A few months later, the State Council abolished the system.

That same year Mr. Xu rose to the defense of a muckraking editor jailed in Guangzhou after his newspaper, Southern Metropolis, ran a series of articles about Mr. Sun’s death. The editor, Cheng Yizhong, said Mr. Xu helped rally lawyers and journalists, leading to his release five months later. “Only Xu had the courage to take on my case,” he said.

More recently, he was preparing a challenge to black jails, the illegal holding cells that some officials use to silence persistent critics. Last year, friends say, he was roughed up several times while gathering evidence from petitioners who had come to Beijing to press their grievances to the central government.

Although he was less outspoken than some other rights activists, Mr. Xu did not shy away from cases that were bound to upset China’s power elite. Last May Gongmeng published a study challenging the official verdict that blames the Dalai Lama for the 2008 riots in Tibet. The report, disseminated online and sent to government leaders, said legitimate grievances born from failed government policies were largely responsible for the unrest.

Raised in a Christian home in Henan Province, Mr. Xu was fond of noting his birth in a county called Minquan, which translates as “civil rights.” In an interview last year with The Economic Observer, a Chinese weekly, he said this had a profound impact on his social consciousness.

“I strive to be a worthy Chinese citizen, a member of the group of people who promote the progress of the nation,” he said. “I want to make people believe in ideals and justice, and help them see the hope of change.”

Jonathan Ansfield contributed reporting, and Huang Yuanxi contributed research.

China’s Tally of 718 Arrests in July Riots Is Questioned

By MICHAEL WINES

BEIJING — Chinese authorities said Tuesday that they had taken 718 people into custody in connection with last month’s ethnic riots in the western region of Xinjiang, but an official with an ethnic Uighur exile group said the true number was far higher.

The new report, released by the state-run Xinhua news agency, left it unclear whether the 718 detainees represented the total of suspects captured since the July 5 unrest, or were in addition to previous arrests and detentions. The government had previously said that more than 1,500 people had been detained after the riots.

Nor was it clear how many of the suspects had been charged with crimes. State radio, quoted by Reuters, reported on Tuesday that 83 suspects had been accused of crimes ranging from murder and arson to assault and disturbing the peace.

The Xinjiang riots in the regional capital, Urumqi, killed at least 197 people — most of them ethnic Han Chinese, officials said — and injured about 1,100 others. The violence broke out after Uighur residents, the area’s original settlers, marched to protest the treatment of Uighur factory workers involved in a disturbance in eastern China.

The resulting unrest was the worst ethnic violence in China in at least a decade. Tuesday’s Xinhua report, a summary of progress in the official inquiry into the riots, quoted the head of Urumqi’s Public Security Bureau, Cehn Zhuangwei, as saying that 718 “criminals who disturbed the peace” had been detained. Investigators were pursuing nearly 600 important leads, he said, and were examining hundreds of photographs and video clips, as well as DNA samples in an effort to track down those involved in the violence.

In Washington, Omar Kanat, the vice president of the World Uighur Congress, an exile group, said that the Chinese reports of detainees were understated, and that the new report of 718 detentions could only add to previously reported totals.

“Many people are calling us every day, and they say the number of arrests exceeds five, six thousand,” he said in a telephone interview. “We cannot confirm that. But we know that the numbers of arrests are much more than the Chinese figures.”

Most of the detained people are of Uighur descent, he said, adding that Uighurs in Xinjiang have told the organization in recent days about a wave of new detentions in Urumqi and surrounding areas.

Australia Detains Terror Suspects

Australian police have arrested four people in the city of Melbourne after uncovering what they say was a plot to launch a suicide attack.

The group was planning to carry out the attack on an army base, police said.

More than 400 officers were involved in searching 19 properties across the city before dawn on Tuesday.

The suspects are Australian nationals of Somali and Lebanese descent; one man, aged 25, has been charged with conspiring to plan a terrorist act.

Nayaf El Sayed, from the Glenroy district of Melbourne, was remanded in custody until 26 October.

He did not enter a plea or apply for bail, and refused to stand for the magistrate in court.

His lawyer told the hearing: "He believes he should not stand for any man except God."

Police were granted extra time to question three others - Saney Aweys, Yacqub Khayre and Abdirahman Ahmed.

A fifth man, who had been detained earlier, was also being questioned about the alleged plot.

'Sobering'

"Police believe members of a Melbourne-based group have been undertaking planning to carry out a terrorist attack in Australia and [are] allegedly involved in hostilities in Somalia," a police statement said.

"The men's intention was to actually go into the army barracks and to kill as many soldiers as they could before they themselves were killed," said Tony Negus, acting chief commissioner of the Australian Federal Police.

Holsworthy Barracks on the outskirts of Sydney was one of the planned targets, according to police.

The attack would have been the most serious terrorist attack on Australian soil, Mr Negus added.

"Members of the group have been actively seeking a fatwa or religious ruling to justify a terror attack on Australia," he said.

Prosecutors told the court they had evidence some of the men had taken part in training and fighting in Somalia.

They also said there were phone conversations, text messages and surveillance footage, including footage of one of the suspects outside the Holsworthy army base, linking the suspects to an alleged attack.

The court heard the men planned to seek a fatwa, or religious ruling, to support an attack on the Holsworthy army base.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said: "The sobering element of today's development is the reminder to all Australians that the threat of terrorism is alive and well, and this requires continued vigilance on the part of our security authorities."

The country's security level is unchanged at medium, where it has been since 2003.

The police said the raids followed a seven-month operation involving several state and federal agencies.

Police believe those arrested are linked to the Somali-based al-Shabab group, which seeks to overthrow the weak UN-backed Somali government and is believed to have links to al-Qaeda.

Arrests of Sunni Leaders Rise in Baghdad

By ROD NORDLAND

BAGHDAD — The Baghdad police still do not enter the hard-line Sunni neighborhood of Adhamiya, which continues to suffer an insurgent attack every couple of days.

The Iraqi Army mans checkpoints here, but usually jointly with neighborhood volunteers from the Awakening movement, which is made up mostly of former Sunni insurgents who changed sides and helped reduce violence; it now fields as many as 900 paid fighters in Adhamiya.

But in little more than a week, the Iraqi Army’s 42nd Brigade has arrested seven Awakening leaders in Adhamiya, a neighborhood in north Baghdad. The second in command, Riyadh Abdul Hadi, was arrested on July 21, along with four of his followers, and last Sunday, the group’s security chief, Ghassan Muttar, and a local neighborhood leader, Abdul Khadir, were also arrested, three Awakening leaders in Adhamiya said.

The Iraqi government, which has been deeply suspicious of the Awakening movement for arming former insurgents, made no announcement of the Adhamiya arrests. They may well be another telltale sign of the dwindling influence the United States has over the Iraqi government now that American troops no longer dominate Baghdad.

In March and April, at least two dozen Awakening leaders were arrested, along with many more of their followers. The arrests apparently subsided in May, after strong expressions of concern from American officials. The recent arrests are the first known ones since American troops withdrew from cities and towns on June 30.

American military commanders at the highest levels have promised to track the arrests of Awakening leaders, and in some cases have intervened to win their release. American military officials declined to comment on the arrests. In the past, officials have stressed that arrests represented only a small portion of the 90,000 Awakening members throughout Iraq.

Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki, a Shiite, has called Awakening members patriots and said that only those who have committed new crimes will be arrested. The Awakening leaders in Adhamiya are deeply skeptical. “We thought what we did for this area would win some place in the hearts of Iraqi officials, but it hasn’t,” one of the leaders said. “This place was a jungle before us.”

Many Adhamiya Awakening leaders have been attacked by Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia, a largely Iraqi organization with some foreign leadership. Last year a suicide bomber wearing an explosive vest approached one of the local founders of the Awakening, then hugged him while detonating his vest. When other Awakening members arrived at the scene, another suicide bomber, this time in a car, drove into their midst and set off explosives, killing 13 more. Twenty-five of the Adhamiya fighters have been killed so far in insurgent attacks.

Two Awakening leaders were interviewed recently in a storefront that one of them used as a base; both spoke on the condition of anonymity, saying they feared provoking the Iraqi Army into arresting them.

Their fighters stood guard outside and along the road; outsiders to Adhamiya still draw attention from residents.

“A month ago I was ready to quit,” one of the leaders said, complaining that since the Iraqi Army took over from the Americans, their pay has often been delayed, and Iraqi soldiers have often treated them contemptuously. He was persuaded by a community leader to be patient and remain in the group.

“We have sacrificed our blood here, so how can we quit?” the second leader said. He said he had narrowly escaped an assassination attempt just four months ago when a roadside bomb was detonated as he passed by.

The other leader said: “The Americans created the Awakening movement here. Before June 30th, when we had a problem, we could go to them and they would fix it. Now we don’t have anyone to talk to, we’re just hanging out in the streets.”

The leaders said that local Iraqi Army commanders held a meeting with Awakening members in Adhamiya early this week, attended by an American officer, to assure them they were not singling out the organization. The army commanders said they were just arresting individuals charged with new offenses, rather than crimes committed when Adhamiya was an insurgent stronghold. In those days, the local American base was called Fort Apache.

The commanders did not, however, reveal what those offenses were. “When the Americans were here, they would have told us the reasons and then everyone would calm down,” the second leader said. “Now they tell us nothing.”

Sheik Sabah al-Mashadani, the overall leader of the Adhamiya Awakening, said in an interview at his home that he was unconcerned, even at the arrest of his deputy. The judicial investigation will determine whether he is guilty, he said.

Under the Iraqi legal system, suspects are arrested and then a judge supervises an investigation before determining whether the charges were justified. That process often takes many months.

“We don’t want these arrests to make any unrest in the neighborhood,” the sheik said. “Since the Iraqi Army took over authority for us, we became part of the Iraqi security system, and like any other Iraqi employee, we are subject to our employer’s discipline.”

Riyadh Mohammed contributed reporting.

Cleric With Taliban Ties Is Arrested In Pakistan

Associated Press
Monday, July 27, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, July 26 -- Pakistani police arrested an influential pro-Taliban cleric on Sunday who had brokered a failed peace deal in northern Pakistan's troubled Swat Valley, an indication that the government will no longer negotiate with militants.

Authorities accused Sufi Mohammad -- father-in-law of Swat's notorious Taliban leader Maulana Fazlullah -- of encouraging violence and terrorism.

The peace deal in February imposed sharia, or Islamic law, in the valley in exchange for an end to two years of fighting. But it was widely seen as handing over control of Swat, once a popular tourist destination, to the Taliban.

The deal collapsed in April when the Taliban advanced south out of Swat, triggering a military offensive and retaliatory attacks by militants in the northwest and beyond. About 2 million people fled the region, and although hundreds of thousands have returned in the past two weeks as the military operation winds down, sporadic fighting continues.

"At this critical juncture, we cannot allow, we cannot let a person walk free, a person who has supported terrorists," said Mian Iftikhar Hussain, information minister for North-West Frontier Province.

"Instead of keeping his promises by taking steps for the sake of peace, and speaking out against terrorism, he did not utter a single word against terrorists," Iftikhar said in a news conference in Peshawar.

Mohammad leads a pro-Taliban group known as the Movement for the Enforcement of Islamic Law. He was jailed in 2002 but was freed last year after renouncing violence.

Mohammad was not in control of armed militants in Swat. The Taliban's ability to bounce back from the recent offensive will depend on the leaders, including the cleric's son-in-law. Despite rumors to the contrary, none has been captured or is known to have been killed.

Countering Riots, China Rounds Up Hundreds

By ANDREW JACOBS

URUMQI, China — The two boys were seized while kneading dough at a sidewalk bakery.

The livery driver went out to get a drink of water and did not come home.

Tuer Shunjal, a vegetable vendor, was bundled off with four of his neighbors when he made the mistake of peering out from a hallway bathroom during a police sweep of his building. “They threw a shirt over his head and led him away without saying a word,” said his wife, Resuangul.

In the two weeks since ethnic riots tore through Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang, killing more than 190 people and injuring more than 1,700, security forces have been combing the city and detaining hundreds of people, many of them Uighur men whom the authorities blame for much of the slaughter.

The Chinese government has promised harsh punishment for those who had a hand in the violence, which erupted July 5 after a rally by ethnic Uighurs angry over the murder of two factory workers in a distant province. First came the packs of young Uighurs, then the Han Chinese mobs seeking revenge.

“To those who have committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them,” Li Zhi, the top Communist Party official in Urumqi, said July 8.

The vow, broadcast repeatedly, has struck fear into Xiangyang Po, a grimy quarter of the city dominated by Uighurs, Turkic-speaking Muslims who have often had an uneasy relationship with China’s Han majority. Uighurs are the largest ethnic group in Xinjiang, but in Urumqi, Han make up more than 70 percent of the 2.3 million residents.

It was here on the streets of Xiangyang Po, amid the densely packed tenements and stalls selling thick noodles and lamb kebabs, that many Han were killed. As young Uighur men marauded through the streets, residents huddled inside their homes or shops, they said; others claim they gave refuge to Han neighbors.

“It was horrible for everyone,” said Leitipa Yusufajan, 40, who spent the night cowering at the back of her grocery store with her 10-year-old daughter. “The rioters were not from here. Our people would not behave so brutally.”

But to security officials, the neighborhood has long been a haven for those bent on violently cleaving Xinjiang, a northwest region, from China. Last year, during a raid on an apartment, the authorities fatally shot two men they said were part of a terrorist group making homemade explosives. Last Monday, police officers killed two men and wounded a third, the authorities said, after the men tried to attack officers on patrol.

“This is not a safe place,” said Mao Daqing, the local police chief.

Local residents disagree, saying the neighborhood is made up of poor but law-abiding people, most of them farmers who came to Urumqi seeking a slice of the city’s prosperity. Interviews with two dozen people showed vehement condemnation of the rioters. “Those people are nothing but human trash,” one man said, spitting on the ground.

Still, the police response has been indiscriminate, they said. Nurmen Met, 54, said his two sons, 19 and 21, were nabbed as riot officers entered the public bathhouse his family owns. “They weren’t even outside on the day of the troubles,” he said, holding up photos of his sons. “They are good, honest boys.”

Many people said they feared that their family members might be swallowed up by a penal system that is vast and notoriously opaque. Last year, in the months leading to the Beijing Olympics, the authorities arrested and tried more than 1,100 people in Xinjiang during a campaign against what they called “religious extremists and separatists.”

Shortly after the arrests, Wang Lequan, the region’s Communist Party secretary, described the crackdown as a “life and death” struggle.

Uighur exile groups and human rights advocates say the government sometimes uses such charges to silence those who press for greater religious and political freedoms. Trials, they say, are often cursory. “Justice is pretty rough in Xinjiang,” said James Seymour, a senior research fellow at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

In a sign of the sensitivities surrounding the unrest, the Bureau for Legal Affairs in Beijing has warned lawyers to stay away from cases in Xinjiang, suggesting that those who assist anyone accused of rioting pose a threat to national unity. Officials on Friday shut down the Open Constitution Initiative, a consortium of volunteer lawyers who have taken on cases that challenge the government and other powerful interests. Separately, the bureau canceled the licenses of 53 lawyers, some of whom had offered to help Tibetans accused of rioting last year in Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.

Rights advocates say that if the trials in Xinjiang resemble those that took place in Tibet, many defendants will receive long sentences. “There is a lot of concern that those who have been detained in Xinjiang will not get a fair trial,” said Wang Songlian, a research coordinator at Chinese Human Rights Defenders, an advocacy group.

Residents of Xiangyang Po say police officers made two morning sweeps through the neighborhood after the rioting began, randomly grabbing boys as young as 16. That spurred a crowd of anguished women to march to the center of Urumqi to demand the men’s release.

But none of the detainees has come home, the residents say, and the authorities have refused to provide information about their whereabouts.

“I go to the police station every day, but they just tell me to be patient and wait,” said Patiguli Palachi, whose husband, an electronics repairman, was taken in his pajamas with four other occupants of their courtyard house. Ms. Palachi said they might have been detained because a Han man was killed outside their building, but she insisted that her husband was not involved. “We were hiding inside at the time, terrified like everyone else,” she said.

Although it was impossible to verify the accounts of the residents, as Ms. Palachi spoke, more than 10 people gathered to share similar accounts.

Emboldened by the presence of foreign journalists, the group decided to walk to the local police station to confront the police again. “Maybe if you are with us, they will give an answer,” said Memet Banjia, a vegetable seller looking for his son. “Probably they will say nothing and the next day we will disappear, too.”

But the meeting with the police was not to be. As the residents approached the station house, a squad car roared up and the crowd melted away. The foreigners were ordered into the car and driven to the station house. After an hour’s wait, a pair of high-ranking security officials arrived with a lecture and a warning.

“You can’t be here; it’s too unsafe,” one of them said as he drove the foreigners back to the heavily patrolled center of the city. “It’s for your own good.”

Zhang Jing contributed research.

Riots Engulf Chinese Uighur City

Groups of ethnic Han Chinese have marched through the city of Urumqi carrying clubs and machetes, as tension grows between ethnic groups and police.

Security forces imposed a curfew and fired tear gas to disperse the crowds, who said they were angry at violence carried out by ethnic Muslim Uighurs.

Earlier, Uighur women had rallied against the arrest of more than 1,400 people over deadly clashes on Sunday.

The two sides blame each other for the outbreak of violence.

AT THE SCENE Quentin Sommerville, Urumqi There are many armed military police standing around, also a few remnants of those Han Chinese demonstrators, still people wandering around the city carrying poles and batons and some carrying knives. There's a great air of trepidation here as to how this night will play out. I wouldn't have thought today that I would have seen Uighur men and women acting so defiantly in the face of Han Chinese authority, but they did. I wouldn't have thought that thousands of Han Chinese would be able to walk freely through a Chinese city and march and shout slogans. Xinjiang is one of the most tightly-controlled parts of the country. Those controls seem to have slipped quite considerably.

Officials say 156 people - mostly ethnic Han Chinese - died in Sunday's violence. Uighur groups say many more have died, claiming 90% of the dead were Uighurs.

The unrest erupted when Uighur protesters attacked vehicles before turning on local Han Chinese and battling security forces in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province.

They had initially been protesting over a brawl between Uighurs and Han Chinese several weeks earlier in a toy factory thousands of miles away in Guangdong province.

On Tuesday about 200 Uighurs - mostly women - faced off against riot police to appeal for more than 1,400 people arrested over Sunday's violence to be freed.

'Heart-breaking' violence

Later hundreds of Han Chinese marched through the streets of Urumqi smashing shops and stalls belonging to Uighurs.

The BBC's Quentin Sommerville, in Urumqi, says some of the protesters were shouting "down with Uighurs" as they rampaged through the streets armed with homemade weapons.

UIGHURS AND XINJIANG Xinjiang population is 45% Uighur, 40% Han Chinese Uighurs are ethnically Turkic Muslims China re-established control in 1949 after crushing short-lived state of East Turkestan Since then, large-scale immigration of Han Chinese Sporadic violence since 1991 Attack on 4 Aug 2008 near Kashgar kills 16 Chinese policemen In pictures: Protests Q&A: China and the Uighurs China tells its own story Accounts of Xinjiang violence

Police used loudspeakers to urge the crowd to stop and later fired tear gas, as the Han Chinese confronted groups of Uighurs.

One protester, clutching a metal bar, told the AFP news agency: "The Uighurs came to our area to smash things, now we are going to their area to beat them."

Urumqi's mayor, Jierla Yishamudin, said a "life and death" struggle was being waged to maintain China's unity.

"It is neither an ethnic issue nor a religious issue, but a battle of life and death to defend the unification of our motherland and to maintain the consolidation of all ethnic groups, a political battle that's fierce and of blood and fire," he told a news conference.

One official described Sunday's unrest as the "deadliest riot since New China was founded in 1949".

Xinjiang's Communist Party chief Wang Lequan announced during a televised address that a curfew would run from 2100 until 0800.

State-run news agency Xinhua quoted him as saying any ethnic violence was "heart-breaking" and blaming "hostile forces both at home and abroad" for the trouble.

China's authorities have repeatedly claimed that exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer is stirring up trouble in the region.

But she told the BBC she was not responsible for any of the violence.

"Last time during the Tibet riots, [the Chinese government] blamed the Dalai Lama, and now with the Xinjiang riot, they are blaming me," she said.

"I will never damage the relationship between two communities and will never damage the relationship between people. For me, all human beings are equal."