Commemorating Gulja

It's 10 years since the Gulja massacre in Xinjiang (via):

Dozens of exiled Uighur Muslims have protested outside China’s embassy in Washington DC on the 10th anniversary of a massacre that some say was on a similar scale to events in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Protesters waved Uighur flags and chanted slogans calling on China to account for the many people they say were killed on February 5, 1997.

Human rights group say hundreds, possibly thousands, were killed and injured when police broke up a demonstration in the city of Gulja in China’s Xinjiang region.

Speaking at Monday's protest, Rebiya Kadeer, the exiled Uighur leader, said China continued to brutally oppress the Uighur people.

She said China had done nothing to explain the events at Gulja, now known as Yining, and some 8,000 there had "disappeared without a trace."

"Ten years have passed but the Chinese authorities have still not accounted for the innocent lives lost and those missing following the Gulja massacre," she said

"What is worse is China continues to oppress our people."

She has accused China of committing "cultural genocide" against the Uighur people as it seeks to develop the rich energy and mineral resources in the vast western region of Xinjiang.

More on Xinjiang here and here. Plus some photos of Xinjiang here.