Mark Memmott, NPR, reports that China has executed nine Uighurs for participating in protests in July.

China Has Executed Nine Uighurs
by Mark Memmott, NPR

Monday 09 November 2009

Nine Uighurs have been executed by the Chinese government for taking part in ethnic violence that rocked the country's far west in July, Chinese state media reported today.

According to the Associated Press, the state news service did not report when the executions were carried out or give any other details.

As NPR's Anthony Kuhn reported, the violence in Urumqi left hundreds dead over the summer. The unrest began when Uighurs (a mostly Muslim, Turkic minority) protested over the government's handling of a brawl between ethnic Han and Uighur workers at a toy factory.

The tensions between Uighurs and Han go back more than two centuries.