Rebiya Kadeer
Rioting began following the Shaoguan incident, a brawl in southern China several days earlier in which two Uyghurs had been killed.The Chinese central government alleges that the riots themselves were planned from abroad by the World Uyghur Congress (WUC) and its leader Rebiya Kadeer, while Kadeer denies fomenting the violence in her fight for Uyghur "self-determination."