China arrests 94 in Urumqi riots

URUMQI, China, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- Chinese police arrested 94 more people allegedly wanted in the July Urumqi ethnic riots in northwest Xinjiang-Uighur region, authorities said Wednesday.

The arrests brought to 382 the total number of people taken into custody since early November when police in the region launched their "strike hard" campaign against those accused in the riots in the capital Urumqi in which about 200 died, Xinhua news agency reported.

A spokesman with the regional public security department said he could not give details of the charges against those who were arrested, the report said.

The spokesman said the "strike hard" campaign helped break up 66 criminal rings and was aimed at enhancing social stability and dispelling public concern over security in the region after the riots.

There was no word on when the campaign would end.

The Xinhua report said 14 people have so far been sentenced to death for murder and other crimes allegedly committed during the riots.

Several others have been sentenced to life imprisonment.

The riots erupted after months of simmering ethnic tensions as the Muslim Uighurs resent being ruled by Han Chinese. The Uighurs are a Turkic minority in China.