Kazakh citizen hurt in disturbances in Urumqi - Foreign Ministry.

10/7 Tass 104

ASTANA, July 10 (Itar-Tass) -- A citizen of Kazakhstan was hurt in the
disturbances in Urumqi, the administrative center of the Xinjiang Uygur
autonomous region, the Kazakhstan Segodnya news agency said with the
reference to the Foreign Ministry's Ilyas Omarov.

"According to the updated information, a Kazakh citizen found himself
in the conflict zone and was injured in the head. He is alive but his
condition is steadily serious and doctors do not allow to take him away,"
he said.
More than 1,200 citizens of Kazakhstan left the Xinjiang Uygur
autonomous region on July 6-8, and it is planned to evacuate more. Two
hundred and sixty citizens will travel by railroad, 130 by plane and 120
by bus. "There is an agreement with the Chinese side and the Kazakh Border
Service that the Khorgos checkpoint will be open round the clock," Omarov
said.
"Information about 500 Kazakh citizens in the Xinjiang Uygur
autonomous region has been supplied by the hotline. Some of them refuse to
return to Kazakhstan," he said.
The Kazakh Foreign Ministry and the Chinese embassy agreed to suspend
the issue of tourist visas to Kazakh citizens wishing to visit the
Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. "All other regions of China are open to
visitors," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashikbayev said.
Meanwhile, Sibir Airline continues regular flights between Novosibirsk
and Umurqi two days a week, a source at the airline Novosibirsk office
told Itar-Tass on Friday.
"No flights have been cancelled to Urumqi," Novosibirsk Tolmachyovo
International Airport spokesperson Svetlana Smirnova said. Local tourist
companies are waiting for the end of disturbances in the Chinese city.
Meanwhile, eleven students from Russia's Novosibirsk, who had been
studying Chinese in Urumqi went home ahead of time on Friday, head of the
consular department of the Russian embassy in Beijing Leonid Ignatenko
told Itar-Tass.
He said the students had made the decision because of the disturbances
in Urumqi.
"Our students are not hurt, but they prefer to stay on the university
campus," head of the Novosibirsk State University international relations
department Yevgeny Saigadak said. "The planned visit of the next group of
exchange students to Urumqi has been delayed."
Another nine students with the supervising teacher plan to go home on
Saturday.
A limited number of Russian businessmen and Russian citizens married
to the Chinese will stay.
-0-yer