WUC leader accused of organizing riots

URUMQI, China, July 9 (UPI) -- The Chinese government presented a long list of what it said was evidence to support its charge a separatist group's leader was behind the Urumqi riots.

Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the World Uighur Congress, is accused of instigating last Sunday's deadly ethnic riots in Urumqi, capital of China's northwest Xinjiang-Uighur region, where tensions have simmered for years between the region's Han Chinese and Muslim Uighurs, who resent being ruled by the former.

The WUC, based in Munich, Germany, has already denied these charges and has condemned what it claimed was a Chinese crackdown on its people.

Quoting the government, the state-run news agency Xinhua said the WUC used a June 26 toy factory brawl between Uighur and Han Chinese migrant workers in southern Guangdong province to create chaos in Urumqi.

Xinhua said the WUC held a special meeting July, plotting to instigate unrest by sending messages via the Internet and phone calls.

The government said Kadeer's plan to foment domestic and overseas demonstrations worked as there were attacks on the Chinese consulate in Munich and its embassy in the Netherlands.

WUC was founded in Munich in 2004 and Kadeer was elected its chairwoman in 2006. The government contends the group, representing the East Turkestan people, is dedicated to masterminding secessionist activities in the name of human rights and democracy.

Xinhua said Kadeer, who was born in Xinjiang in 1951, is a former businesswoman who made a fortune illegally through tax evasion and fraud. She was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2000 for allegedly disclosing state secrets but was released on bail in 2005 to seek medical treatment in the United States.