Beijing ? China has executed nine men, including eight from the Muslim Uighur minority, for crimes committed during July riots that killed 200 people in far western Xinjiang region. The men are the first to be put to death for the country’s worst ethnic violence in decades.

The nine had been convicted of murder and other crimes committed during the unrest, which began July 5 when Uighurs in the regional capital of Urumqi attacked Han people, who make up China’s dominant ethnicity, only to face retaliatory attacks two days later.

Many Uighurs, who are a Turkic Muslim ethnic group linguistically and culturally distinct from the Han, resent Beijing’s heavy-handed rule in Xinjiang, their traditional homeland.

Four months after the riots, Xinjiang remains smothered in heavy security, with Internet access cut and most international calls blocked.

The official China News Service reported Monday that the nine were executed after a final review of the verdicts by the Supreme People’s Court, but it gave no specific date or other details. Earlier reports had identified those condemned as eight Uighurs and one Han.