China claims embassy protests show Xinjiang riots organised

BEIJING (Reuters) - Demonstrations against Chinese consulates in Europe and the United States show that ethnic riots in Urumqi were orchestrated, China's state-run Xinhua news agency said on Monday.

Demonstrators threw eggs, Molotov cocktails and stones at several Chinese embassies and consulates, including in Ankara, Oslo, Munich and the Netherlands, Xinhua said, after reports of rioting in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang province.

"Supporters of the East Turkestan separatists started well-orchestrated and sometimes violent attacks on Chinese embassies and consulates in several countries soon after the riots occurred last Sunday," Xinhua said.

"The attacks against China's diplomatic missions and the Urumqi riots seemed to be well-organised."

Uighurs attacked Han Chinese in Urumqi on July 5 after police tried to break up a protest against fatal attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in south China. Han Chinese in Urumqi launched revenge attacks later in the week.

The official death toll now stands at 184, of which 137 were Han Chinese, who form the majority of China's 1.3 billion population, and 46 were Uighur, a Muslim people native to Xinjiang and culturally tied to Central Asia and Turkey.

China blamed Rebiya Kadeer, an exiled Uighur businesswoman, for instigating the unrest.

Xinhua also blamed the World Uighur Congress, an umbrella group for organisations of exiled or overseas Uighurs, for the demonstrations at the embassies.

Deadly riots in Lhasa in March 2008, and a subsequent Chinese crackdown across the Tibetan plateau, also spurred a series of demonstrations at Chinese embassies in countries with a significant exile Tibetan population.