Barack Obama's move to defer a meeting with the Dalai Lama during his visit to Washington DC is being criticized as a "retreat" on human rights issues, with the president being accused of caving to Chinese pressure ahead of a Sino-US summit in Beijing next month. (India Journal, Oct. 15) Chinese authorities have meanwhile protested a visit by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to a Himalayan enclave in the state of Arunachal Pradesh claimed as Chinese territory. "China expresses its strong dissatisfaction on the visit by the Indian leader to the disputed area in disregard of China's grave concerns," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu.

Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer protested death sentences handed down to six Uighur men this week for their role in July's violent unrest in China's Xinjiang region. "Chinese authorities are using these death sentences to send a political message representing brute force, fear and intimidation," she said in a press release. "The trial of these six men occurred in an extremely charged political environment, and the men were not afforded due process as required by Chinese law."

Chinese authorities released a letter Aug. 3 purportedly written by relatives of the exiled Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer blaming her for last month's deadly unrest in Xinjiang. "Because of you, so many innocent people lost their lives in Urumqi on July 5," the letter says, the Xinhua news agency says. A friend and associate of Kadeer based in Germany said the letter was a forgery. China has blamed Kadeer for the violence between Uighurs and Han Chinese in which the government says nearly 200 people were killed. Kadeer denies the charges. (NYT, Aug. 3)

China will begin trials over the next weeks for suspects accused in last month's deadly riots in Urumqi, capital of the Xinjiang region, state media announced. China Daily said officials are organizing special tribunals for "a small number" of the 1,400 detained, most of them ethnic Uighurs. Earlier this week, the authorities arrested an additional 253 suspects, many through tips provided by Urumqi residents. Those who provide information leading to an arrest can collect up to $7,350 in reward money. Li Zhi, the head of the Communist Party in Urumqi warned: "To those who have committed crimes with cruel means, we will execute them."

Kyrgyzstan's incumbent Kurmanbek Bakiyev claims an 85% of the vote in the weekend's presidential election. But challenger Almazbek Atambayev is questioning the results, and flew to Moscow to discuss the issue with Russian leaders. The Union of Civic Organizations, an independent Kyrgyz election monitoring group, said it had documented several violations, including "massive ballot stuffing." Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has yet to congratulate Bakiyev on his victory. Neither Russia nor the US has explicitly commented on the conduct of the election.

Two Uighur men were shot dead and a third wounded after an apparent attack on police in Urumqi, Xinjiang, July 13. The next day, authorities raised the death toll in the recent Urumqi violence to 192 people and 810 injured. The rise in the toll had been expected as authorities earlier said many of the critically injured were near death. The previously announced death toll was 184, of whom more than 130 were Han Chinese. Uighurs say up to hundreds of their dead are not being counted. (UPI, July 15; BBC World Service, July 14; The Telegraph, July 13)

Chinese authorities have re-imposed a curfew in the city of Urumqi, Xinjiang, following new disturbances July 10. When authorities tried to close the White Mosque ahead of Friday prayers in the Uighur district which had been the center of last weekend's violence, this only sparked an angry protest at the mosque's gates. As the crowd rapidly swelled, the riot police who had been dispatched to secure the mosque finally relented and let prayers proceed—but not before arresting four foreign journalists. The curfew had been suspended for the past two days after officials said they had the city under control. State media now say the death toll in the weekend's clashes has risen to 184. Of these deaths, authorities say 137 were Han, 46 were Uighur, and one was of the Hui ethnic group. (Radio New Zealand, July 11; AP, July 10)

Despite harsh restrictions on media and Internet in the western Chinese province of Xinjiang, wire services report continuing clashes between Han and Uighur residents of Urumqi in the wake of violence July 5 that left some 150 dead. Riot police used tear gas to disperse mobs armed with pipes and sticks. Han youth chanting "defend the country" attempted to invade Uighur neighborhoods, seeking retribution for the previous day's violence. In Hong Kong, Human Rights Watch Asia researcher Phelim Kine said the Chinese government needs to bring in an "international investigator from the United Nations to try to determine what exactly happened on Sunday and what were the reasons for it." (NY Daily News, BBC News, VOA, July 7)