Independent investigations required – A warning about more violence in northwestern China
The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) demands independent police investigations about an incident during which, according to an official statement from China, 14 Uyghurs and two Chinese police officers were killed in the north-west of the country last weekend. "At present, about 15 to 20 Uyghurs are shot dead by the police every month. If the circumstances of these deaths are not investigated by an independent instance, the cycle of violence in the conflict region will grow worse," says a letter that Ulrich Delius, the STP's Asia-consultant, addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, on Monday. The human rights organization appeals to the United Nations to send an investigative commission to Xinjiang. "The high number of Uyghur victims in many of the police operations in the Autonomous Region of Xinjiang is striking – and it also contributes to the increase of ethnic tensions in the conflict region."