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China criticizes press coverage of Hotan incidents
At least 20 people died in the attack in Hotan, a remote town in the region, which has been troubled by deep-rooted ethnic tension.
The Chinese Embassy in Ankara said in the statement that there were “untruthful news stories, reports and commentaries” regarding the Hotan attack in the media, noting that such reports and “propaganda” were the result of “a hostile attitude toward the People's Republic of China.” The statement didn't specify the newspapers where the reports appeared or the content of the reports. It also wasn't specifically referring to the Turkish press in the statement.
The statement also included an addendum, detailing “the actual” course of the events in Hotan on July 18. According to the embassy, 18 radical religious fundamentalist and violent terrorists attacked the Narbag police station in Hotan on July 18 at 12:10 p.m. It said the terrorists stormed the police station with Molotov cocktails, knives and axes, killing one officer, and taking several hostages, some of whom were also killed.
International news reports later included a statement from the World Uyghur Congress, an exile group based in Germany, contesting the Chinese government's account. The group said the police station was ransacked by a crowd after a police crackdown on a protest against arbitrary detentions. But city residents, including Uyghur and Hans, say there hadn't been any demonstration before the attack.
Beijing often blames what it calls violent separatist groups in Xinjiang for attacks on police or other government targets, saying they work with al-Qaeda or Central Asian militants to bring about an independent state called East Turkestan.
Many Uyghurs -- a Muslim, Turkic-speaking people native to the region -- suffer under rule from Beijing and restrictions on their language, culture and religion.
They now make up less than half of Xinjiang's population after decades of migration by the majority Han from other parts of China. In July 2009, Xinjiang's capital Urumqi was rocked by violence between majority Han Chinese and minority Uyghurs that killed nearly 200 people.
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