Report: China to Try 200 for July Riots

More than 200 people are expected to go on trial this week for their involvement in sectarian riots last month that killed nearly 200 people in China's eastern region of Xinjiang, a state-run newspaper reported Monday.

The trials will take place in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang and the site of China's worst ethnic violence in decades, in which an additional 1,700 people were injured, the China Daily reported. The rioting pitted Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs against members of China's dominant Han ethnic group.

Since the riots, the government says life has largely returned to normal in the city, although officials remain wary of renewed outbreaks of violence.

The newspaper reported last week that more than 3,300 items of physical evidence had been collected, including bricks and clubs stained with blood. The evidence included 91 video clips and 2,169 photographs, it said.

Most of the arrests were made in Urumqi and Kashgar, a city in southern Xinjiang with a heavy concentration of Uighur people, the newspaper quoted an unidentified Urumqi prosecutor as saying.

The charges range from vandalizing public property to murder, the China Daily said.

Although security in Urumqi is already high, "a drastic increase in security is expected in the whole city," the newspaper said, especially around the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court. Armed police are already conducting around-the-clock patrols in the area.

The newspaper did not give a breakdown on how many Uighurs and how many Han would go on trial, but it said more than 170 Uighurs and 20 Han lawyers had been assigned to the suspects.

The China Daily said 718 people had been detained on suspicion of taking part in the rioting. Earlier reports said at least 1,600 were detained. It wasn't clear whether any had been released.

The riots broke out July 5 after police stopped an initially peaceful protest by Uighur youths. Uighurs then smashed windows, burned cars and attacked Han. Two days later, the Han took to the streets and staged retaliatory attacks.

The violence underscored simmering resentment among many Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gers) over what they consider Chinese occupation of their land and strict controls over religion and cultural activities. Uighur extremists have long waged a low-intensity insurgency against Chinese rule, although they are believed to be few in number and poorly organized.