Urumqi's governing bodies at all levels have called on lessors to cooperate with house rental investigations in an effort to improve migrant population administration following the July 5 riot.

The investigation campaign is part of the city's efforts to accelerate legislative procedures for house rental and migrant population management in the wake of the bloody unrest that left 197 dead in the capital of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, a local legislator said Sunday.

Of the dead, 156 were innocent civilians.

New law would help standardize house rental agencies, bring "a messy situation" in the sector back into order, and reinforce migrant population control, Murat Yunus, director of the Standing Committee of the city's legislative body, said on Thursday.

House rental regulations and provisional tax rules took effect in the city respectively in 2004 and 2005. But many lessors have tried to avoid registration or paying taxes to designated authorities.

The city has registered more than 300,000 people who rent houses in 500 residential communities, said an official with the house renting management office.

Many members of the separatist, terrorist and extremist forces, which were behind the brutal violence a month ago, were found to be living in rented houses over the past year, said the official who declined to be named.

The municipal government of Urumqi issued a circular last week calling on local residents to register or report to public security bureaus any suspicious activity on the part of rental businesses or tenants.

In the city's Tianshan District, lessors are already required to register by August 30 with working teams deployed to residential communities last Sunday.

Government posters said "most of the suspects involved in the deadly riot had been living in rented houses, which were their hideouts from which to launch violence and terrorist actions".

Lessors who fail to cooperate before the deadline will face severe penalties.

(Xinhua News Agency August 10, 2009)