For example, Amnesty International has called on the PRC government to bear full responsibility for the deaths of over 160 persons and imprisonments of over 1,000 and the immediate release of persons who were merely exercising their rights of free speech and assembly and has demanded an independent and impartial investigation into the sources and handling of the violence.

Unfortunately, one of the few governments to remain silent in the broad global democratic community has been Taiwan, whose President Ma Ying-jeou and other senior officials of the restored Chinese Nationalist Party government have uttered not one clear word of criticism of the state violence of the CCP regime or its fostering of development policies that have discriminated heavily against the Uighur native population in favor of Han Chinese immigrants and its condoning of ethnic violence by Han Chinese.

This latest wave of protests began with non-violent demonstrations by Uighur residents over the PRC government's failure to take action after a massive riot between hundreds of Uighur workers and thousands of Han Chinese employees in a toy factory in Shaoguan, Guangdong province, ended in the deaths of two Uighur workers.

The protests erupted into violence that has claimed the lives of Han Chinese and Uighurs alike and should be condemned regardless of who "provoked" the clashes.

Nevertheless, it is evident that this week's riots were virtually inevitable given the discriminatory policies carried out by the PRC regime for decades.

As a statement released by Amnesty International Tuesday correctly noted, the Uighurs have been the target of systematic and extensive human rights violations since the 1980s, including arbitrary detention and imprisonment, incommunicado detention, and serious restrictions on religious freedom as well as cultural and social rights.

"Chinese government policies, including those that limit use of the Uighur language, severe restrictions on freedom of religion, and a sustained influx of Han Chinese migrants into the region, are destroying customs and, together with employment discrimination, fuelling discontent and ethnic tensions," noted the London-based human rights organization.

Despite growing unrest and international criticism, the PRC government has refused to seriously contemplate any change in its policies of encouraging Han occupation of "minority" areas which has indeed turned the Turkish Uirgur people and, likewise, the Tibetan people into "minorities" on their own lands.

Uighur citizens have also been infuriated by the latest action in Beijing's campaign of cultural subordination, namely the ongoing deliberate demolishment of the core of the ancient city of Kashgar, which has been described as "the best-preserved example of a traditional Islamic city to be found anywhere in central Asia."

Not surprisingly, Kashgar has also been reported to have experienced "violence" in the latest wave of unrest.

Instead of examining the underlying reasons for the recurrent unrest, the the Beijing authorities have adopted almost identical attitudes toward dissent in East Turkestan and Tibet, namely to deal severely with any manifestation of protest with suppression, arrests or arbitrary detentions and slander any calls for genuine autonomy or self-rule as terrorism, separatism or religious extremism.

Just as Beijing authorities irrationally blame the pacifist Dalai Lama for promoting "terrorism" in Tibetan areas, the PRC regime has blamed exiled Uighur organizations, notably the World Uyghur Congress led by Rebiya Kadeer which the PRC labels as both "terrorist" and "separatist," for planning the riots.

To its credit, the opposition Democratic Progressive Party has joined with local human rights organizations to openly condemn the violence in East Turkestan, including the use of state violence by PRC authorities, but the KMT government seems to have forgotten that, as a free and democratic country, Taiwan has an obligation to uphold human rights at home and abroad. Indeed, precisely because of the recent process of cross-strait "reconciliation," Taiwan's voice - as well as its silence - will have considerable weight in the Asia-Pacific region and will not go unnoticed.

The KMT government's cowardly refusal to utter a word of criticism of the PRC regime for its actions in East Turkestan also contrasts starkly with the Ma government's self-congratulations for its use of threats to downgrade relations and even cut economic assistance in the "defense of national dignity" after Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega missed a state dinner last Friday due to a national emergency.

If the KMT government wishes to retain any credibility in its recent claim to "have always upheld democracy and the rule of law," it can at the very least join in the calls issues by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Amnesty International for the PRC authorities immediately release all persons detained only for exercising their civic freedoms, immediately end news and internet backouts and an independent and impartial investigation into the incidents in Shaoguan and Urumqi alike.