Court case took place against background of rising tension between Uighurs and majority Han Chinese
A Chinese court has sentenced two Muslim men to death and jailed three more for their roles in clashes that left 21 dead in the north-western region of Xinjiang in April, state media has reported.
The case took place days after claims of fatal violence in another city in the restive region. Officials in Aksu played down that incident as "small scale" or denied there had been any problems at all.
Xinjiang has been the scene of repeated outbreaks of violence in recent years and there are long-running tensions between the state and Uighurs, the largely Muslim, Turkic-speaking ethnic group that makes up almost half the population. In other recent unrest, 35 people were killed in Turpan in June last year while, in July 2009, ethnic violence in Urumqi left almost 200 people dead and 1,700 injured.
Fifteen officials and security officers, and six inhabitants died in April's clash in Kashgar.
Musa Hesen, accused by the state of playing a leading role in the violence, was sentenced to death on Monday for murder, forming and leading a terrorist organisation, and illegally manufacturing explosives. Rehman Hupur was also sentenced to death for murder and membership of a terrorist organisation, the state news agency, Xinhua, said. An unnamed defendant was jailed for life and two more given nine-year sentences.
Nineteen suspects were arrested in all and further trials are expected.
The authorities said the group had watched video clips advocating religious extremism and terrorism, made explosives and prepared knives and banners for terrorist attacks. When community workers discovered these "knives and suspicious individuals" at a house in Bachu county, just outside the city of Kashgar, they were taken hostage by the gang, Xinhua said. Hesen then led others in stabbing or burning to death police and officials, while six members of his group were shot dead at the scene.
Exiles and human rights groups have complained that the government has been too quick to brand violent incidents in Xinjiang as terrorism. Officials did not identify a particular group responsible for the Kashgar incident.
News of the trial followed a report from Radio Free Asia (RFA) that at least three Uighurs were killed and more than 20 officers and civilians injured when security forces opened fire on a crowd trying to stop police from arresting four suspects in Aykol district, Aksu, on the eve of Eid last Wednesday.
Abdugheni Osman, deputy head of the Aykol police station, told RFA that an angry mob outside the Peyshenbe bazaar mosque hurled bricks and stones at the police, who were looking for four Uighur suspects they believed to be involved in "illegal religious activity".
He added that three people were killed after police opened fire. Several officers and civilians were injured and more than 90 arrested.
An employee at the Aykol police station told the Guardian on Tuesday that "no such thing" had happened. The city's police department, however, acknowledged: "It was a small scale event … I don't know more details."
"What's worrying is this multiplication of very violent incidents in which people are losing their lives, both security forces and inhabitants," said Nicholas Bequelin, senior Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch.
"Tensions between Uighurs and the Chinese state are ever-increasing."
Many Uighurs chafe at restrictions on their religion and culture, as well as Han Chinese migration and economic inequality. Some seek an independent state.
While the government has invested heavily in the resource-rich region, raising living standards, many complain that Uighurs have not enjoyed the benefits and that aggressive development is eroding their way of life.
"The state has embarked on a project to completely hollow out Uighur religious practice of anything it doesn't control or that doesn't conform to its views of how religious activities should look," said Bequelin.
"The net is tightening all the time with more and more activities prohibited and more scrutiny of what's being written or sung."
Such tensions have been exacerbated by high unemployment, mass relocations and conflicts over water and land resources, he said.
