"They told us we can't go out on July 5 and they also came around on Thursday to gather all our big knives," the 46-year-old said, drinking tea at his restaurant in the Uighur quarter.

Capital of far-western Xinjiang region, Urumqi was torn in two on July 5, 2009 as the mainly Muslim Uighur minority vented decades of resentment of Chinese rule with attacks on members of China's dominant Han ethnic group.

Han mobs took to the streets in the following days seeking revenge. Nearly 200 people were killed and 1,700 injured in all, the government says, in the worst ethnic violence in China in decades.

China blamed "separatists" for orchestrating the unrest.

Tensions in the city again boiled over in September after a spate of syringe attacks -- which many victims blamed on Uighurs -- led to days of protests that left five people dead.

Uighurs, Xinjiang's Turkic-speaking, central Asian people, say they live under fear of being detained on suspicion of fomenting trouble, while some Han say they are prepared for the worst if trouble breaks out again.

Authorities appeared to be bracing for the anniversary, with police conducting massive anti-riot exercises and 40,000 security cameras installed throughout the city.

Residents say security forces -- already beefed up after last year's unrest -- have deployed in ever greater numbers in recent days with armed police and riot police seen patrolling the city of over two million people on Sunday.

People's Square in the heart of Urumqi, where the unrest began last year, was off limits Sunday, with a construction crew telling AFP the plaza would be closed for several months for refurbishment.

Pointing to gates authorities erected on the road where he lives to keep out outsiders, Abdullah said he feared Han mobs could go on the attack again.

"Those are going to be locked on the anniversary," he said.

In a report issued Friday, the London-based Amnesty International cited "excessive use of force, mass arrests, enforced disappearances, torture and ill treatment" of prisoners during the crackdown that quelled the unrest.

"Amnesty International is calling on China to set up an independent and impartial inquiry into the human rights abuses committed by all participants in the Urumqi unrest," the group said in a statement.

At least 26 people have been sentenced to death for their roles in the unrest, with at least nine already executed, it said.

Uighurs have long alleged decades of Chinese oppression and unwanted Han immigration, and while standards of living have improved, Uighurs complain most of the gains go to Hans.

"The veil came off (in the unrest). People began to realise how deeply the ethnic animosity runs between Han and Uighurs," said Dru Gladney, an expert on Uighurs at Pomona College in California.

Restaurants and shops in the city were open and busy at the weekend. Mosques were packed for Friday prayers in the Uighur quarter, with some faithful spilling onto the pavement.

At one mosque, Muslim men prayed in the shadow of a large sign urging people to oppose separatism and "Uphold the unity of the motherland", as groups of armed riot police kept guard at nearby intersections.

Police were also seen checking bags at the entry to marketplaces, stores and hotels.

Text-messaging services, overseas calls and the Internet -- cut off amid the violence because of fears they could be used to fuel it -- have gradually been restored, although some Uighur-language websites remain blocked.

Many Han said the situation was back to normal, adding the police presence would prevent more unrest Monday, but the wounds and fear are just below the surface.

One Han Chinese man surnamed Wang who owns a drinks stall near the city centre said he would be on his guard Monday.

"We're mentally prepared now -- if something happens, I know where to get to a safe place quickly," he said.

Many Uighurs refused to be interviewed by AFP, fearing police reprisals. Others bitterly alleged continued oppression and some complained large numbers of Uighurs were taken away by police after the unrest, their fates unknown.

A Uighur businessman who refused to be named said his 20-year-old brother was sentenced to nine years in prison for throwing a stone at a car in last year's trouble.

"That's unimaginably strict, and as you can imagine, it's really difficult on my family," he said.

Xinjiang enjoyed long spells of autonomy in its history, but China's 1949 Communist takeover led Beijing to emphatically assert its sovereignty claims.

While China has not admitted policy failures, heads have rolled over the unrest, most notably Wang Lequan, Xinjiang's most powerful official, who was removed in April and replaced with Zhang Chunxian, a man seen as less hardline.

Abdullah was cautious that would make much difference.

"They (top officials) always seem better at the beginning, but then gradually, after half a year to a year, things get worse again," he said.

He wants to get a passport for his son -- which he said was difficult for Uighurs -- so he can leave Xinjiang for a foreign country where "salaries are higher and the human rights situation is good".

earlier related report
Facts on China's Xinjiang region
Urumqi, China (AFP) July 4, 2010 - The following are key facts about China's Xinjiang region, which Monday marks the first anniversary of deadly ethnic unrest that erupted in the capital Urumqi.

GEOGRAPHY: The region's vast 1.6 million square kilometres (618,000 square miles) accounts for a sixth of China's territory and spans into Central Asia. It borders Afghanistan, the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, as well as Russia to the north and the Pakistan- and Indian-controlled parts of Kashmir to the south.

POPULATION: 20 million, representing 47 ethnic groups. The largest group is the roughly nine million ethnic Uighurs -- a Turkic-speaking central Asian people. But the number of Han Chinese in the region has risen from six percent in 1949 to more than 40 percent now. Critics say it is part of a policy of Han Chinese migration to dilute any nationalist tendencies.

HISTORY: China has long ruled Xinjiang in various degrees and re-established its control there in 1949 by crushing the short-lived state of East Turkestan that had emerged during the Chinese civil war.

Xinjiang is one of China's five autonomous regions -- a designation given by the government to recognise the status of an ethnic minority, though such regions are still tightly controlled by the state -- along with Tibet.

Uighurs say they have suffered under Chinese rule. Nationalist sentiment intensified in the 1990s after Soviet troops retreated from Afghanistan and three neighbouring Islamic Soviet republics gained independence.

MILITANT GROUPS: Groups identifying themselves as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) and the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) want to establish an independent homeland for ethnic Uighurs. Some experts believe the two groups are one. The United States and the United Nations have listed ETIM as a terrorist organisation. Both Washington and Beijing say ETIM militants have received training and funding from Al-Qaeda, although some analysts dispute that.

Timeline of unrest in China's Xinjiang region
Urumqi, China (AFP) July 4, 2010 - China's Xinjiang region on Monday marks the first anniversary of deadly ethnic unrest in its capital Urumqi that exposed deep anger among the mostly Muslim Uighur minority and which Beijing says left nearly 200 dead.

Following is a chronology of key events related to the restive region since 2008:

2008

May 5 -- Three killed in bus bombing in Shanghai. The Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) claims responsibility.

July 8 -- Chinese authorities say police killed five Muslims who were planning a "holy war" in Urumqi.

July 21 -- Three buses bombed in Kunming, in southwest China's Yunnan province, killing two people. TIP claims responsibility. China says TIP not responsible, but gives no details.

August 4 -- China says "terrorists" kill 17 police officers and border guards in the far-western city of Kashgar, days before the Beijing Olympics open.

August 10 -- At least 10 attackers and one security guard are killed in bombings and a shoot-out with police in the remote city of Kuqa.

August 12 -- Three security officers outside Kashgar are killed when assailants jump off a vehicle passing through a checkpoint and stab them.

August 27 -- Two policemen are killed and five wounded while searching a cornfield near Kashgar for a suspect connected with an earlier attack.

August 29 -- Chinese police kill six and arrest three others in a clash in Kashgar.

2009

February 25 -- A couple from Xinjiang set themselves on fire with their son in central Beijing over a dispute with their local government. They survive.

April 9 -- China executes two Muslim men in Kashgar for the August 4 attack.

June 25 -- A huge brawl erupts in the city of Shaoguan in southern China's Guangdong province between Uighur and ethnic Han factory workers. Two Uighurs are reported killed and dozens injured.

July 5 -- Uighurs gather in Urumqi to protest over the Shaoguan incident but violence erupts after security forces move in. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Uighurs riot.

July 6 -- Chinese security forces begin to pour into Urumqi and fan out across Xinjiang. The Xinjiang government blames exiled Uighur dissident Rebiya Kadeer for orchestrating the unrest. Kadeer, other Uighur exiles and Uighurs in Urumqi blame Chinese authorities for provoking the violence.

July 7 -- Police fire tear gas to halt thousands of armed Han Chinese threatening revenge attacks on Uighurs in Urumqi. The government says nearly 200 died in the unrest, with more than 1,600 injured and hundreds arrested.

July 13 -- Police in Urumqi shoot dead two Uighurs whom witnesses say had attacked security forces with knives.

September 2 -- Han residents take to Urumqi's streets for several days of protests calling for a crackdown over a wave of syringe stabbings. The government eventually says nearly 500 were stabbed. Beijing blames "ethnic separatist forces". At least 75 are later reported arrested for the attacks.

November 9 -- China says it had put to death the first nine people over the July unrest. Eventually at least 26 are reportedly sentenced to death.

2010

January 18 -- State media says China restored Xinjiang text-message services cut off amid the July 2009 unrest out of fear they were used to organise more violence. Email and some Internet services are later gradually restored.

March 15 -- Xinjiang's hardline top leader Wang Lequan says China will accelerate development in Xinjiang to quell unrest. State media later say more than one billion dollars will be invested.

April 24 -- Chinese media says the unpopular Wang has been replaced by Zhang Chunxian, a Communist Party official from Hunan province, in a move widely seen as a bid to placate public anger.

June 24 -- Police say they busted a Xinjiang "terrorist" ring behind a string of deadly attacks in the region, arresting at least 10 people.

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