Exiled Uighur leader rejects China riot accusations

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Exiled Uighur businesswoman and activist Rebiya Kadeer rejected on Monday Chinese allegations that she was behind rioting in China's northwestern Xinjiang region in which at least 156 people were killed.

Chinese state media quoted unnamed officials as blaming the World Uyghur Congress led by Kadeer for the violence, after protesters from the Uighur minority took to the streets of the regional capital Urumqi on Sunday, burning and smashing vehicles and shops, and clashing with police.

"These accusations are completely false," Kadeer said through an interpreter in Washington.

"I did not organize any protests or call on the people to demonstrate."

Kadeer told reporters she called her brother when she learned of the violence in Urumqi to warn her 40 relatives in the region to stay away from the demonstrations.

"A call I made to my brother does not mean I organized the whole event," she said.

The businesswoman, a 62-year-old mother of 11 children, has been in exile in the United States since 2005, after years in jail, and accused of separatist activities.

Kadeer said five of her children and nine grandchildren reside in Xinjiang, including two sons. All relatives face strict surveillance, she said, and she called her brother to spare them more harassment from authorities.

Kadeer, who was once a celebrated minority entrepreneur who was named to a consultative body to China's parliament before running afoul of Beijing, said the protests in Urumqi started peacefully in response to the deaths last month of two Uighur factory workers in southern China.

"They were not violent as the Chinese government has accused. They were not rioters or separatists," she said.

Asked why she was being blamed for the strife, she likened her situation to that of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. Violent protests swept Tibet in early 2008.

"Whatever happens in Tibet, the Chinese authorities are quick to point the finger at the Dalai Lama, His Holiness, as the source and instigator of the problems there, and so it is with me as well," said Kadeer.

(Reporting by Paul Eckert, editing by Mohammad Zargham)