China raises Xinjiang death toll to 184

By Chris Buckley

URUMQI, China (Reuters) - China has raised the death toll from ethnic rioting in the far western region of Xinjiang to 184, and for the first time gave a breakdown by ethnicity and sex of those who died, state media reported on Saturday.

The official Xinhua news agency said that 137 of those killed were Han Chinese, who form the majority of China's population, including 111 men and 26 women.

Forty-six were Uighurs, a Turkic people who are largely Muslim and share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia. All but one were men. Uighurs make up almost half of Xinjiang's 20 million people.

Xinhua said the other dead person from the violence that erupted last weekend was a member of the Hui Muslim ethnic group which is culturally akin to Han Chinese.

Chinese authorities had delayed releasing the ethnic breakdown of the dead, possibly out of concern it would further inflame the situation.

Beijing cannot afford to lose its grip on the vast territory that borders Russia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, has abundant oil reserves and is China's largest natural gas-producing region.

On July 5, demonstrations in Xinjiang's capital Urumqi by Uighurs protesting against an attack on Uighur workers in southern China turned deadly after police moved in. Shops and vehicles were burnt.

Human Rights Watch said that the government had deployed some 20,000 troops in Urumqi since the riots.