China dismisses accusation of Xinjiang genocide

By Ben Blanchard and Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Tuesday dismissed Turkey's accusation of genocide in its northwestern Muslim region of Xinjiang, where rioting killed 184 people, mostly majority Han Chinese.

In Xinjiang's worst ethnic violence in decades, Uighurs on July 5 attacked Han in the regional capital Urumqi after police tried to break up a protest against fatal attacks on Uighur workers at a factory in south China.

Han Chinese launched revenge attacks two days later.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said last week genocide was being committed in Xinjiang and called on Chinese authorities to intervene.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Tuesday the accusation of genocide simply did not make sense. Most people who died in the riots were Han and over the past few decades the Uighur population in Xinjiang had shot up, he said.

"In which country could this be called genocide?" Qin told a regular news briefing.

"We hope that our Muslim brothers can realise the truth of the July 5 incident in Urumqi. Once they know the truth, they would support our ethnic and religious policies and the measures the Chinese government has taken to deal with the incident."

Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi told his Turkish counterpart by telephone on Sunday the Urumqi riots were a grave crime orchestrated by the "three evil forces," Xinhua news agency said, referring to extremism, separatism and terrorism.