URUMQI, Aug. 4 (Xinhua) -- After a letter from Rebiya Kadeer's family to her was made public on August 4, her sons, daughter and brother in China talked about their sorrow and expectations of their mother and sister.

Kadeer's eldest son Khahar was a witness of the riot on July 5.

Khahar interviewed in Urumqi, July 31, 2009.

"I saw the whole thing from the balcony of my apartment at the 12th floor in Shanxixiangzi Alley," he said. " Mobs came from the south. They smashed shops, burnt police vehicles and buses, and beat passers-by. I believe no one in Xinjiang expects such violence to occur."

As his uncle Memet had received a call from his mother six hours before the riot took place, Khahar thought Kadeer must have been involved.

Khahar, his sister Roxingul and uncle Memet wrote a letter to Kadeer, asking her not to organize violence or undermine the peaceful life in Xinjiang, on July 24.

"She is my mother. It is not good to say things bad about her. But we just hope she can pull herself out of these (separatist) activities," he said. "Maybe she can listen to the advice from her children."

But he admitted Kadeer did not listen to them much.

"Before the riot when she called from the United States, I tried several times to persuade her not to harm ethnic harmony here or try to separate the country. She didn't take my words seriously."

"What we want is a peaceful life," Khahar said.

Khahar runs a 2.67-hectare orchard in Aksu in southern Xinjiang. He had planned a family vacation there in July.

"A total of 15 family members, including me, my sister and uncle, would go on the vacation. But the plan has to be delayed because of the riot," he said.

He learned from TV and newspapers that many people were killed in the riot.

"We were worrying that there might be misunderstanding that we, as her children, were also involved," he said. "That's why we thought about writing a letter to families of the riot victims."

In the letter, the family made clear they were not involved in the riot, expressed their sympathy to the victims, and told people not to listen to rumors spread by Kadeer.

Kadeer had six children with ex-husband Abdurehim. The couple divorced when Khahar was 13 years old.

Her daughter Roxingul has been working in a local school for more than 20 years.

When she considered her mother may have been behind the July 5 riot, Roxingul said, "As her daughter, I feel so sorry for the people who lost their lives during the unrest."

According to Roxingul, although many people around know she is Kadeer's daughter, they "get along very well". "At first I was afraid people would hate me very much," she said.

But her colleagues at the school have been very kind to her. "I feel like living in a big family of different ethnic people," she said.

She recalled a colleague who called her after the riot to make sure she was fine. "He asked me 'how's it going? Is everything ok?' At that moment, I was moved," she said.

Students at the school where Roxingul work are of Han, Uygur, Kazakh, Hui and many other ethnic groups. "Teachers and students all get along very well."

Roxingul said her biggest wish was that ethnic harmony in Xinjiang would be "strong enough to withstand any separatists' vicious attempts."

Kadeer's six children were all at young age when she got divorced and left them with their father. The youngest of them, Alim, was only eight months old.

Now 33, he still cannot get over the abandonment.

"My memories about my mother were blank before the age of 17," he said. "I cannot understand why she did this to me."

After graduating from a medical school in 1999, he began to run his mother's company, which was later under investigation of tax evasion.

"When the company was investigated, my mother called me from abroad and told me that I could go to the street to demonstrate and set myself on fire with gasoline so as to threaten the government," Alim recalled. "I did not say a word and hang up the phone. "

He did not follow her words. He said, "I love my children. They need me. So I didn't do that and I'll never do that." Badly hurt, he said he couldn't understand why a mother could teach her son to do that.

Alim was put in jail in 2007 for evading tax of more than 7 million yuan (1.02 million U.S. dollars).

"It was when my mother ran the company that the company evaded taxes," he said. "My stepfather told her to do so."

Alim learnt about the July 5 riot through media reports.

"She might not know how many people died, how many were injured and how badly the city was affected," he said. "What should we do as her children?"

He hoped she could think about the feeling of her people at home and do something good for the country.

"Our family has not been together for a long time. If she continues to do this, there will be no chance of a reunion," Alim said.

Memet, Rebiya's younger brother, might remember the phone call from Kadeer in the rest of his life.

She called him at 11:40 a.m. on July 5, about six hours before the deadly riot.

"She told me something big would happen in Urumqi," Memet said. "From what she said on the phone, she should know about this accident beforehand. If she made it happen, she will be punished no matter where she is."

That night, Memet witnessed the "something big".

"Looking down from my window, I saw the rioters burning vehicles while looting," he said. "They also beat and killed innocent people."

During the interview, Memet said he was "very angry" and "very upset" as he watched the violence.

"I think the violence was wrong," he said.

Memet, who used to live and do business with Kadeer, said he would scold her if she called after the violence.

"What sin has the public committed? What wrong have the cars done? Is it good that you've made such a mess? You promised us and the government that you wouldn't do something like this, why don't you keep your promise? " Memet said.

Memet said the lives of his children, who work or do business in Urumqi, had been affected by the riot.

"It caused heavy losses not just to us, but to many people in Xinjiang and other regions of the country," he said.

He hoped life could "go back to what it used to be like" with ethnic harmony.