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Amnesty Fears Crackdown Could Mean Further Muslim Repression in China
BEIJING, Oct 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Human rights giant Amnesty International warned Friday that the Chinese government could be using the global anti-terrorism campaign to justify human rights abuses against peaceful Muslim dissidents in its far west region.
China's calls for a crackdown on so-called "terrorism" in Muslim-majority Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR), bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan, could mean "the dismal human rights situation in the region will further deteriorate," Amnesty said.
"The Chinese authorities do not distinguish between 'terrorism' and 'separatism'," the group said in a statement from its London headquarters, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"Separatism in fact covers a broad range of activities most of which amount to no more than peaceful opposition or dissent," said the statement.
"While Amnesty International recognizes that governments have a duty to take appropriate measures to ensure the security of their citizens, it is concerned that the Chinese authorities are trying to use the September 11 events to justify their harsh repression of Muslim ethnic groups in XUAR which they accuse of being 'separatists', 'terrorists' or 'religious extremists'.
"Such accusations obscure a more complex reality in which a great many people not involved in violence have become the victims of gross human rights violations," it added.
Amnesty said that several hundred Uighurs accused of involvement in such activities have been executed since the mid-1990s, thousands of others have been detained, imprisoned and tortured, and growing restrictions have been placed on Islamic scholars and the practice of Islam in the region.
Amnesty also expressed concern that the statement may also lead to renewed government action against suspected "separatists" in Tibet.
On Thursday, China insisted its campaign against Muslim separatism in Xinjiang was "part and parcel" of the global anti-terrorism fight following the September 11th terror attacks on the U.S.
"We hope that efforts to fight against East Turkistan terrorist forces will become a part of the international efforts and should also win support and understanding," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi, referring to the name of the independent state sought by separatists.
"Harsh measures should be taken to crackdown on them. They are a global scourge," he added.
Local officials have reported a crackdown on activists in the region since the September 11th attacks, although they said it was just linked to a nationwide "strike hard" anti-crime drive launched in April.
Previous Chinese crackdowns on ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang have raised concerns among several human rights groups, with Amnesty saying in a report earlier this year that torture of prisoners there was "widespread".
Police in Urumqi began a "campaign to clear up cases" earlier this month, centered on violent terrorist and separatist activities, the semi-official China News Service online reported.
"This action is aimed at maintaining public order and stability during the winter and next spring by smashing the bloated pride of violent terrorists," Urumqi public security bureau chief, Du Jianxi, was quoted as saying.
"Striking hard at violent terrorist activities and ethnic separatists is one of the main goals of this campaign," he said.
Many people in Xinjiang resent Beijing's rule and a minority has campaigned for an independent state called "East Turkistan".
A series of bomb blasts hit the region in 1997, which Beijing blamed on separatists.
Last year some members of the Islamic community faced "repressive and often brutal measures," said Amnesty's report on Thursday.
A Western diplomat in Beijing said Thursday that China was exaggerating the threat it faced, hoping to merge its battle against separatists into the global anti-terrorism campaign.
"They are taking advantage of the war on terror and have tried to link their domestic problems with the campaign in wider Central Asia," he said. "It was always obvious this was one of the quid pro quo's they would want with America."
However, he said it was "a long way to leap" to say that this made Xinjiang's separatists a global menace.
"It is a low-level, low-intensity and very sporadic cycle of violence," he said, saying there had been just one politically motivated act of violence in Xinjiang this year. "There is very little sympathy for Osama bin Laden in Xinjiang."
On Tuesday, China indicated that it fully supported U.S. and British attacks on Afghanistan, which began Sunday night, during a telephone conversation between U.S. President George W. Bush and Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
"China backs all resolutions passed respectively by the U.N. General Assembly and the Security Council and supports anti-terrorism activities," Jiang was quoted by the foreign ministry as saying.
"It is clear that the United States shares common objectives with China in this effort against a common enemy," U.S. Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly said.
"I am gratified that China is just as determined as the United States to rid the world of this scourge," he said in statement following a two-day visit.
"U.S.-China cooperation in the global struggle against terrorism is a top priority in the relationship, a point that President [Bush] will make clearly when he visits China for APEC meetings next week."
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