July 2009 Urumqi riots

July 2009 Ürümqi riots
Part of Xinjiang conflict
Ürümqi Location of Ürümqi within China
Location	Ürümqi, Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China
Date	5 July 2009 (UTC+8)
Attack type	anti-government / ethnic
Deaths	at least 197
Non-fatal injuries	1,721

The July 2009 Ürümqi riots were a series of violent riots over several days that broke out on 5 July 2009 in Ürümqi, the capital city of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR), in northwestern People's Republic of China (PRC). The first day's rioting, which involved at least 1,000 Uyghurs, began as a protest but escalated into violent attacks that mainly targeted Han people. People's Armed Police were deployed, and two days later hundreds of Han people clashed with both police and Uyghurs. PRC officials said that a total of 197 people died, among those killed most of them are Hans, with 1,721 others injured and many vehicles and buildings destroyed; however, Uyghur exile groups say the death toll is higher. Many men disappeared during wide-scale police sweeps in the days following the riots; Human Rights Watch (HRW) documented 43 cases and said figures for real disappearances were likely to be much higher.

Rioting began when the police confronted the march calling for a full investigation into the Shaoguan incident, a brawl in southern China several days earlier in which two Uyghurs had been killed. However, observers disagree on what caused the protests to become violent. The PRC central government alleged that the riots themselves were planned from abroad by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and its leader Rebiya Kadeer, while Kadeer denies fomenting the violence in her fight for Uyghur "self-determination." Uyghur exile groups claim that the escalation was caused by the police's use of excessive force.

Chinese media coverage of the Ürümqi riots was extensive, and was compared favourably to that of the unrest in Tibet in 2008. When the riots began, communications were immediately cut off. In the weeks that followed, official sources reported that over 1,000 Uyghurs were arrested and detained; Uyghur-run mosques were temporarily closed. The communication limitations and armed police presence remained in place as of January 2010. By November 2009, over 400 individuals faced criminal charges for their actions during the riots. Nine were executed in November 2009, and by February 2010, at least 26 had received death sentences.