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Chinese
Muslim Group Accused By U.S. of Planning Terror
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The
East Turkestani flag |
BEIJING,
August 29 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States
Embassy in Beijing claimed Thursday, August 29, that the U.S. has
evidence that an obscure western Chinese Muslim group has been
planning terrorist attacks on U.S. interests abroad.
The
accusations against the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) come
after Washington - in an apparent concession to Beijing - announced
this week that it was prepared to freeze any U.S.-based assets of the
ethnic Uighur group.
The
U.S. move appeared to mark a change in policy on how Washington views
ethnic unrest in western China’s Xinjiang Autonomous Region.
“(We)
do have some evidence that the ETIM have been planning attacks against
US interests abroad,” a U.S. embassy spokeswoman told Agence
France-Presse (AFP).
“The
ETIM is believed to be responsible for more than 200 acts of terrorism
in China,” she said, without providing any details.
The
evidence was mainly supplied by the government of Kyrgyzstan, which in
May repatriated two suspected Uighur fighters to China on the grounds
that they were planning attacks on embassies, market places and other
public gathering places in the Central Asian country, she said.
“One
of the suspected terrorists, Mamet Yasyn, had surveyed several
embassies and market places (in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek) and was
found traveling with a false Turkish passport,” she said.
Since
the September 11 terrorist attacks against the United States, China
has stepped up its effort to quash Muslim separatist movements in
Xinjiang, its westernmost region, which shares a small border with
Afghanistan.
China
has accused the ETIM of seeking to establish an independent state of
East Turkestan in Xinjiang and of being directly backed by Osama bin
Laden and his al-Qaeda organization.
“Since
the formation of the ‘East Turkestan Islamic Movement’, bin Laden
has schemed with the heads of the Central and West Asian terrorist
organizations many times to help the ‘East Turkestan’ terrorist
forces in Xinjiang to launch a ‘holy war’,” an official Chinese
report on the group said.
Human
rights groups, including Human
Rights Watch, have accused China of exaggerating the terrorist
threat to justify an increasingly harsh crackdown on dissent among
Xinjiang’s eight million Turkic-speaking Uighurs.
In
a report published last year, Human Rights Watch said that the Uighurs
in Xinjiang, have struggled for cultural survival in the face of a
government-supported influx by Chinese migrants, as well as harsh
repression of political dissent and any expression, however lawful or
peaceful, of their distinct identity. Some have also resorted to
violence in a struggle for independence.
Furthermore,
U.S. officials have previously stated that unrest in Xinjiang was
“not necessarily a terrorist issue”, but stemmed from
“legitimate economic and social issues” linked to China’s harsh
religious and political policies.
Meanwhile,
the U.S. embassy spokeswoman said Washington’s agreement to freeze
any U.S.-based assets of the ETIM did not mean the United States had
officially designated the group a “foreign terrorist
organization”.
“The
ETIM has only been placed under an executive order that blocks the
assets of organizations that are linked to terrorism,” she said.
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