Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS, May 9, 1997

Moscow ITAR-TASS, 05/07/97

By ITAR-TASS correspondent Andrey Kirillov

MOSCOW, May 7 (Itar-Tass) -- Kazakhstan's Embassy in Russia has

criticised "biased" coverage by some of the Russian media of mass

rioting, triggered by "Uygyur separatists" in China's Xinjiang province

near the border with Kazakhstan in February, 1997. It strongly denied

in a statement on Wednesday that the Uygyur diaspora in Kazakhstan had

been involved in acts of terror in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.

"Kazakhstan denounces all forms of separatism and is carrying out a

policy of non-interference into the domestic affairs of the

neighbouring state," the statement said. Almaty "respects (China's)

territorial integrity" and does not allow any separatist organisations

to act on its territory against any other country," according to the

document.

The Kazakh Prosecutor General's Office in the autumn of 1995 resolutely

cut short attempts to revive the so-called United National Front of

Eastern Turkestan and the Uygyurstan Liberation Organisation, the

statement said. According to Uygyur estimates, 55 Han Chinese and 25

Uygyurs were killed in deadly clashes and at least 550 people were

arrested in Yining, a town in Xinjiang province, on February 3 to 5.

The Golos Vostochnovo Turkestana paper, coming out in Central Asia,

said in February ethnic unrest had turned into large-scale clashes

between the native Turkic-speaking Moslem people and the Chinese army

together with the paramilitary People's Armed Police, in which hundreds

had been wounded from both sides.

According to Uygyur sources, ethnic rioting in Xinjiang broke out after

30 young Uygyurs had been publicly executed. Over 1,000 Uygyurs staged

a demonstration in protest against the execution, the sources said.

The Chinese Xinjiang Ribao paper said in January that three of the

executed had been guilty of blowing up a car in front of a military

administrative building in Urumqi.