We begin with a follow-up to our report yesterday about violence in China's northwestern Xinjiang Autonomous Region. Tensions are high in Xinjiang between Uighurs, an ethnic Turkic minority who live in the region, and increasing numbers of Han Chinese who have been encouraged to move there by Chinese authorities. Like Tibetans, Uighurs are saying that the Chinese regime is trying to force them to give up their culture and religion.

Violence broke out in Xinjiang at around 4:00pm local time on Tuesday. Local authorities said on Wednesday, the number of people killed rose to 20. That official death toll is difficult to verify as the Chinese regime has a longstanding set of measures to restrict and block information.

State-run Xinhua News Agency has not mentioned what triggered the violence.

But according to a Sweden-based spokesman of the World Uyghur Congress, ethnic discrimination and the Chinese regime's systematic repression have contributed to the incident.

[Dilshad Raxit, Spokesman of World Uyghur Congress]:
"I think the Chinese Communist regime is using strike-hard operation and administrative means to force the Uighurs to give up their religious beliefs. In other words, the Chinese Communist regime is encouraging law enforcement officers to commit violent crimes."

Dilshad also told our reporter police clamped down and did not let any more visitors into the area one hour after the violence broke out. And so far, local authorities have arrested over 100 local Uighurs.