On a trip to Japan, Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer made a new assertion that up to 10,000 Uighurs had disappeared in Urumqi since the violent riots broke out there on July 5. The New York Times reports on conflicting accounts of the violence from Kadeer and the Chinese government:
The true story of what happened in Urumqi may never be known. But Ms. Kadeer’s and the Chinese government’s dueling, sometimes hyperbolic, accounts have sowed confusion and created an even wider chasm between the government and those pressing for greater Uighur autonomy.
“This has become an exercise in influence-building and image management,” said Russell Leigh Moses, a Beijing-based analyst of Chinese politics. “As each side scrambles to push their version of events, the chances for dialogue are rapidly receding. Xinjiang could very well reignite, but instead of fire prevention, each party seems bent on trying to prove the other side is the one with the lighter fluid.”
