The Eastern Turkistan Information Center report

07/13/97 - JULY BLOODY INCIDENT IN ILI REGION

[ETIC, 7/13/1997] A confident source in Beijing reported that, at the beginning of this month, heavy armed clashes erupted between the Uyghur youth and the Chinese military resulted in many Uyghurs killed. The incident took place in the place of Eastern Turkistan's Ili region called Aktope located approximately between Ghulje City and the Ghulje county's border. Immediately after the incident, the Chinese military reenforced guarding of military ammunition depots, and conducted massive arrests detaining about 4 thousand people. The region was sealed and a strict curfew imposed preventing from any information leakage about the clashes. It was the most serious incident after bloody events in Ghulje on February of this year, when the Chinese military brutally suppressed Uyghur demonstrators demanding freedom.

The source also informed that individuals of Uyghur nationality are being arbitrarily detained by the Chinese police all over China beginning this month. The arrests are usually made under a pretext of eliminating drug dealers. [Burkut]