The United States has expressed concern over violent confrontation in the Xinjiang province of China. "We are deeply concerned by the reports of violent confrontation in Xinjiang that left 21 people dead.
We will continue to monitor the situation carefully," the US State Department spokesperson Patrick Ventrell told reporters at his daily news conference yesterday.
"We regret the unfortunate acts of violence that led to these casualties, and we'll continue to encourage Chinese officials to take steps to reduce tensions and promote long-term stability in Xinjiang," he said.
Ventrell urged the Chinese authorities to conduct a thorough and transparent investigation of this incident, and to provide all Chinese citizens, including Uighurs, the due process protections to which they are entitled not only under China's constitutional laws but under their international human rights commitments as well.
During the press conference, Ventrell also urged China to release Memetjan Abdulla, who worked as an editor of the state-run China National Radio's Uighur Service and was detained in July 2009 for allegedly instigating ethnic rioting in the Xinjiang Uighur autonomous region via posts on the Uighur-language website Salkin.
