Scholars and experts from other countries say the Chinese government has taken legal and appropriate measures in response to the July 5 riot in Urumqi, capital of China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

"Every country is obliged to protect its law-abiding citizens," said Syroezhkin Konstantin Lvovich, chief researcher at the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

The imposition of severe punishment for violent crimes should be lauded, he said.

Alexander Neil, head of the Asia Security Program of the British thinktank Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, said: "The Chinese authorities seemed to have done a very professional job in containing the riots."

Mohamed Magdy Morgan, chairman of the International Organization of the Federation of Asia and Africa Writers, said during an interview:

"The Chinese government, like any other governments in the world, must punish the criminals supported by overseas forces according to the law."

He stressed that those groups have threatened stability and security in China and the government has to take tough measures against them.

Former Egyptian ambassador to China Mohammed No'man Galal said China and Islamic countries all oppose extremism, and thus China must bring the rioters to justice.

"The Chinese government should act to solve relevant problems under a framework of general principles," said Galal. "That framework is the integrity of China's sovereignty, and the objection to separatism, terrorism and extremism."

(China Daily July 22, 2009)