Uighur leader says nearly 10,000 'disappeared'

Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer charged today that nearly 10,000 people "disappeared" in ethnic unrest in China's northwest this month and expressed disappointment at the US response to the violence.

Kadeer ( right ), the US-based head of the World Uighur Congress, said that "the Chinese government is trying to destroy the Uighur people," speaking during a Japan visit that angered the communist government in Beijing.

Speaking through an interpreter and citing local sources, she said "close to 10,000 people in Urumqi disappeared in one night" when authorities cracked down from July 5 on the unrest in the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang.

"Where did those people go?" she said. "If they died, where did they go?"

Kadeer, 62, claimed that Chinese police used machine guns to randomly shoot Uighur people after dark after the electricity was turned off, and that the following morning large numbers of Uighur men had gone missing.

Beijing accuses the mother-of-11 and grandmother of being a "criminal" and a separatist who instigated the unrest - which the government says left 197 people dead, most of them Han Chinese killed by angry Uighur mobs.

"I was not involved in the incident," Kadeer told the Tokyo press conference. "If China says I did it, I want them to show evidence. If the international community judges it as evidence, I would acknowledge that."

Kadeer instead charged that "the responsibility lies with the authorities who changed what was a peaceful demonstration into a violent riot."

"For Uighurs, taking part in demonstrations is like committing suicide."

Kadeer - who was jailed in China from 1999 to 2005 and now lives in exile in a suburb of Washington - was on a three-day visit in Japan.

China's foreign ministry on Monday expressed its "strong dissatisfaction" with Japan for allowing entry to Kadeer, and it has also campaigned this week for the United States and Australia to deny her a platform.

In Washington, China's vice foreign minister Wang Guangya on Tuesday said his side had asked the United States to "restrain and prevent" anyone from using its soil to conduct "separatist activities against China."

He also told reporters the Chinese side had "expressed our appreciation for the moderate attitude of the United States so far" to the Xinjiang unrest.

Dalai Lama backs Uighur leader

Kadeer said she was "perplexed and disappointed" by the US response, saying it had been "somewhat cold," but she added: "I do not believe the United States will remain quiet. I believe it will respond in an appropriate way."

She urged the international community to press China, warning that "otherwise, we can expect a second and third incident. This is the time for the international community to speak strongly."

China has also complained to Australia over a planned visit next week by Kadeer, the foreign affairs department in Canberra said Wednesday.

"The matter has been discussed several times, both in Canberra and Beijing," an official told AFP , declining to give further details.

Kadeer is due to attend the Aug 8 launch in Melbourne of the documentary "10 Conditions of Love," which depicts her life story and which prompted Chinese attempts to have it pulled from the city's film festival.

Kadeer on Tuesday drew support from another figure who has long been a thorn in Beijing's side, the Dalai Lama, who told an audience in Warsaw that, like him, Kadeer believed in non-violence and was not seeking a separate state.

Speaking on the Xinjiang situation, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader added: "Using force, this will never bring genuine harmony. Harmony must come based on trust, and trust you cannot bring by a gun."