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France regrets lack of EU observers at Uighur trial
Paris (AFP) Oct 13, 2009 France expressed its concern Tuesday that China had not allowed European diplomats to observe a trial in which six protesters from the restive Xinjiang region were sentenced to death. The suspects, apparently members of the Uighur ethnic group, were convicted of murder and other crimes by a court in the regional capital Urumqi on Monday in the first trials over riots that killed nearly 200 people. "We regret that European diplomats were not allowed to attend the rioters' trial, as the Swedish presidency of the European Union had asked of the Chinese authorities," French foreign ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. "France, along with the rest of the European Union, is opposed to the use of the death penalty all around the world, in whatever circumstances," he said. The July riots were the worst communal violence to hit China in decades, leaving 197 people dead, most of them from China's majority Han ethnic group, and more than 1,600 injured, according to the government. China's roughly eight million, majority-Muslim Uighurs have long complained of religious, political and cultural oppression by Chinese authorities. Uighurs say the unrest was triggered when police cracked down on peaceful protests over a June brawl at a factory in southern China that state media said left two members of the minority group dead. Authorities, however, blame the Xinjiang unrest on "ethnic separatists".
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