BEIJING, March 8 (AFP) - Fewer violent incidents are being staged by freedom-fighters in the Muslim-dominated western Xinjiang province, the region's chairman said Wednesday.
"Separatism does exist, but the number of incidents has clearly fallen off in recent years," said Abulahat Abdurixit at a press briefing on the sidelines of the National People's Congress (NPC) annual session in Beijing.
The drive for Muslim independence from China stemmed from "a complex international and internal situation," he said, adding, "No one backs activists who attack property or people."
Xinjiang's regional congress leader, Amudun Niyaz, said "There are almost no more criminal outbursts but there is the spread of clandestine documents."
Muslim freedom-fighting grew sharply in 1997, when riots in Yining, close to the Kazakhstan border, claimed between 10 and 100 deaths, according to various estimates.
"I can't say there will be no repeat of this," said Abdurixit, reassuring that the drive for independence would have "no impact" on Xinjiang's economic development.
Chinese leaders have recently begun harping on an ambitious plan for economic development in the neglected west of the vast country to try to keep the Muslim minority of China within the country.
Ethnic tensions between the majority Muslim population and the ruling Han Chinese government have long plagued the region and took on new impetus with the dissolution of the former Soviet Union and the emergence of independent Muslim central Asian republics across the border.
Nearly two-thirds of Xinjiang's population of 18 million, according to official figures, is made up of Muslim ethic groups, with Uighurs forming the largest bloc.
In addition, there are undeclared hundreds of millions of Chinese migrants who have flocked to Xinjiang in recent years.
