Police ban public assembly in Urumqi

BEIJING, July 12 (UPI) -- Turkey's prime minister says a crackdown on predominantly Muslim Uighurs in far western China is genocide.

"There's no point in interpreting this otherwise," Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Saturday from Ankara, Turkey, denouncing what he called China's "savagery." Erdogan and other Turks view the Uighurs of central Asia as part of the Turkic Muslim clan, CNN reported Sunday.

Police in Urumqi, China, Saturday banned public assembly without prior approval in an attempt to quiet the Xinjiang provincial capital, Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, reported Sunday.

More than 184 people died and 1,000 others were injured July 5 in Urumqi when riots broke out between members of China's Han majority and Uighurs, who accuse China of trying to assimilate them into Han culture.

Meanwhile, an explosion Sunday at a petroleum refinery in Urumqi caused no casualties and showed no signs of sabotage, Xinhua said. The cause of the explosion was under investigation.