MOSCOW, October 16 (RIA Novosti) - The United States has yet no official comments on recent death penalties in northwest China, a U.S. Department of State spokesperson said.

Xinhua news agency reported earlier that a court in Urumqi, the capital of China's northwestern Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, sentenced six people to death on Thursday over July's deadly riots in the city,

"I don't have an official comment on it. I saw some of the reports, but I don't have anything," Robert Wood, a deputy department spokesman, told a daily press briefing.

The U.S. has repeatedly turned international attention to human rights violations in China and recently awarded the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, with award in honor of the late U.S. human rights activist Tom Lantos. China accuses the Tibetan spiritual leader of separatism, advocating Tibetan independence from China.

Official reports say 197 people died and 1,600 were wounded in the riots, which began when a group of protesters demanded an investigation into the death of two ethnic Uighurs in Guangdong during a fight with Han Chinese workers.

Xinjiang is located in the far northwest of China, and borders Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and the Pakistani- and Indian-controlled parts of Kashmir. The separatist East Turkestan Islamic Movement is active in the region.