Evidence showed that World Uyghur Congress had masterminded Sunday's deadly violence in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a Chinese counter-terrorism expert told Xinhua on Tuesday.

"Judging from what Rebiya Kadeer, leader of the World Uyghur Congress, had said and done, it is fair to say the organization masterminded the incident," said Li Wei, director of the Center for Counter-Terrorism Studies with the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations.

"After the March 14 unrest in Tibet last year, Kadeer said in public that something similar should happen in Xinjiang. The riot in Urumqi bore some similarities with the March 14 incident."

Kadeer had been in close relations to the Dalai Lama, Li said, noting that the Xinjiang riot was regarded by experts as an "intentional imitation" of what happened in Lhasa.

"The riot was by no means incidental and spontaneous," he noted. "It was well organized as riots, targeting civilians, occurred at several locations at the same time."

Xinjiang police said Monday they had evidence that Rebiya Kadeer masterminded the Sunday riot, and had obtained recordings of calls between overseas Eastern Turkestan groups and their accomplices inside the country.

In the recorded calls, Kadeer said, "Something will happen in Urumqi." She also called her younger brother in Urumqi, saying, "We know a lot of things have happened," referring to the June 26 brawl involving workers from Xinjiang in a toy factory in Guangdong Province.

"This year marks the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China," Li said. "The World Uyghur Congress has chosen this specific time to do damage."

(Xinhua News Agency July 8, 2009)