China has promoted the head of the armed police in Xinjiang following ethnic unrest last month in the mainly Muslim region in which nearly 200 people died, state media reported Friday.
The Chinese government says at least 197 people were killed and more than 1,600 injured in the July 5 unrest in the regional capital Urumqi, which pitted minority Uighurs against members of China's dominant Han ethnic group.
Dai Sujun, 54, who was appointed head of the Xinjiang armed police force in November 2008, was Wednesday promoted to deputy chief of the general staff of the national armed police on the orders of the State Council (China's cabinet) and the central military commission, China New Service said.
Dai's deputy Qi Baowen, 55, takes over his former post.
Xinjiang communist party secretary Wang Lequan said "the Xinjiang armed police force shoulders a sacred mission of maintaining social stability", China News Service reported.
"(We) must fully realise the current situation and keep a clear political mind, firmly overcome the decline in alertness … and continue to battle, make full efforts to accomplish the work of maintaining stability," Wang told the conference in Urumqi where the promotions were announced.
Uighurs say the July unrest was touched off when Urumqi security forces responded violently to peaceful protests over a brawl at a factory in southern China that state media said left two Uighurs dead.
However, the government says Uighurs, most of whom are Muslim, went on a rampage in Urumqi against members of China's dominant Han ethnic group.
The Chinese government has blamed the violence on exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer and her World Uighur Congress.
Kadeer was once a successful businesswoman in Xinjiang but was then jailed and has become a figurehead for the Uighur movement since her release in 2005.
The mainly Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang claim they have suffered political and religious persecution since Chinese troops "peacefully liberated" the vast region 60 years ago.
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