Beijing call to drop film about Uighurs

The Chinese government has demanded that a documentary is dropped from the Melbourne International Film Festival.

The film is about exiled Rebiya Kadeer, head of the World Uighur Congress, who is blamed by Beijing for ethnic riots in Xinjiang that left 184 people dead.

Festival director Richard Moore said he had been phoned by the Chinese consulate, adding: "No one reacts well to strident approaches." The film tells of Mrs Kadeer's relationship with her activist husband and the effects on her 11 children of her push for more autonomy for China's Muslim Uighurs. Three of her children have been jailed.