But the centrepiece of the show of force was between the vehicles, a van mounted with loudspeakers blasting out pronouncements on Urumqi's July 5 unrest that left at least 192 dead in China's worst ethnic violence in decades.

Following a crackdown involving tens of thousands of security forces, Urumqi is now being targeted in a propaganda blitz.

"It is the unshirkable duty of the people of all ethnicities to report those suspected in the violent incident of July 5," said posters pasted throughout Urumqi's Uighur district.

"Those who report suspects will be rewarded and praised. Those who provide important clues shall be given major rewards."

Moviegoers who went to see "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", which opened here this week, were greeted with a massive red banner inside the People's Cinema that read: "Against Separation, Safeguarding Unity."

In the window of a sporting goods store, a calligraphied banner was pasted between the faces of NBA stars Shaquille O'Neal and Baron Davies issuing the plea "Strengthen National Unity."

On the sidewalks near the central bazaar, the trading centre for the city's Muslim Uighurs, state newspaper reports and government pronouncements on the "riots" are displayed under plexi glass.

Many promise leniency for those who participated in the "smashing, looting, burning and killing" if they turn themselves in.

In the days immediately after the unrest such notices were dropped from the helicopters that continue to circle the city.

Meanwhile, newspaper articles in Uighur script show exiled leader Rebiya Kadeer photographed with the Dalai Lama, who Beijing has branded a separatist and blamed for similar unrest in Tibet last year.

Kadeer's name can be heard in another message broadcast only in Uighur from city government trucks.

China has accused the 62-year-old US-based female leader of the World Uighur Congress of orchestrating the violence in a bid to advance Xinjiang independence.

Xinjiang is home to eight million Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking people who have long complained about what they say is repression and discrimination under Chinese rule.

Uighurs also complain of an influx of Han Chinese, China's dominant ethnic group, a migration they say is extinguishing their culture. Beijing says it is bringing economic development to the region.

The violent clashes began on July 5 after a Uighur protest. Chinese authorities say 192 were killed, mostly Han Chinese, and more than 1,600 were injured that day.

Thousands of Han Chinese retaliated in the following days, marching through parts of Urumqi vowing vengeance against the Uighurs.

Violence broke out again on Monday, when police shot and killed two knife-wielding Uighurs and wounded another.

Near the scene of the shooting, a massive red banner with yellow letters strung from roadside trees read in Chinese and Uighur: "The biggest danger facing Xinjiang is separatism and criminality."

As the military trucks loop back through the Uighur district, traders reopening their shops said they tried to tune out the blare.

"Uighurs don't listen to it," one trader said on condition of anonymity. "I don't know why they're playing it over and over -- probably because their leaders told them to."

Another trader said the post-riot propaganda was a provocation.

"Xinjiang and China are not one and we don't want them to be," the second trader said.

But outside the Uighur quarter, a banner flapping in the breeze seemed to disagree.

"National Security, Economic Development, Social Stability, The People Are Happy," the banner read.

earlier related report
Uighurs in Kyrgyzstan pledge solidarity with Xinjiang
Pro-Uighur activists in Kyrgyzstan pledged Sunday to protest the bloodshed in China's Xinjiang region as soon as the presidential polls in the ex-Soviet nation this week are over.

"Kyrgyzstan's Uighurs will begin to conduct protests against China's genocide policies against Uighurs in Xinjiang immediately after the presidential elections," said Rozmukhamed Abdulbakiyev at a ceremony in memory of those slain in China earlier this month.

Xinjiang, the remote northwest corner of China and homeland of the Muslim and Turkic-speaking Uighurs, came to international attention when riots broke out in its capital Urumqi on July 5 leavingt 197 dead, according to an official toll.

Abdulbakiyev said that activists would refrain from protests before the vote -- expected to hand an easy victory to incumbent President Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Thursday - so that they would not be interpreted as provocations against local authorities.

"Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has openly denounced China's policies and thousands of demonstrators in Kazakhstan have also came out in support of Xinjang's Uighurs. It's our turn now," Abdulbakiyev said to strong applause from nearly a thousand Uighurs at the ceremony.

An Uzbek deputy Ernest Akramov, the only official present at the ceremony, warned the activists that excessive emotions might lead to "provocations and bloody conflicts."

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