Asia Times: China intensifies its 'terror' crackdown


	November 15, 2001	atimes.com

China

China intensifies its 'terror' crackdown
By Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING - China appears to be intensifying efforts to crack down on Muslim separatists in its northwestern province of Xinjiang.

Speaking at the 56th General Assembly of the United Nations last weekend, Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan condemned terrorism as a "common scourge to the international community" and stressed that China is one of the targets.

"The Eastern Turkestan terrorist forces are trained, equipped and financed by international terrorist organizations," he said. "The fight against the Eastern Turkestan group is an important aspect of the international fight against terrorism."

Also last week, while meeting with United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson in Beijing, Vice Premier Qian Qichen said about 1,000 Chinese Muslims had trained in camps run by Osama bin Laden and his Al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan. That was a surprise revelation. Although previously officials have alleged that there existed links between Muslim separatists in Xinjiang and Afghan terrorist groups, no details were ever given until last week.

This led many to believe that Qian's revelation of the number of terrorists with international backing was meant to justify China's treatment of Muslim separatists, a policy that has come under scrutiny. Human rights activists say carefully scripted diplomatic maneuvers to link the US-led war against terrorism to Beijing's internal campaign against all kinds of separatist movements have gained momentum in recent days.

Human rights groups say that in the wake of September 11 attacks on the United States, the Chinese government has intensified their "Strike Hard" campaign, conducted in the name of eradicating separatist organizations. Large numbers of people suspected of political dissent have been detained, summarily tried and some of them executed. Three Uighurs have recently been executed in connection with an anti-Chinese riot in the Xinjiang city of Yili in 1997. About 20 others have been sentenced to jail in Xinjiang for separatist violence, illegal religious activity or opposition to the government.

"We are concerned that, in the treatment of minorities, the Chinese authorities do not distinguish between peaceful expression of dissent or cultural and religious identity and violent acts," said Human Rights in China, a US-based rights organization in a letter to Robinson last week. "In the Uighur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, the Chinese authorities have long claimed to be fighting against 'violent terrorist movements'. However, the 'terrorist' and 'separatist' labels are indiscriminately used, and have mainly served to legitimize the suppression of any form of dissidence," the letter said.

Other observers have warned that China's human rights record is likely to deteriorate in the first few years after its entry into the World Trade Organization as Beijing no longer has to face the prospect of constantly being watched. The Chinese Communist Party's ambition to keep a tight grip on the country and growing social tensions after the WTO entry will ultimately lead to a conflict with dire consequences for Beijing's human rights record, they add.

As part of the procedure leading to Chinese membership in the trade club, the United States Congress has given up the right to annually review China's human rights situation in return for fuller access to Chinese markets. By pledging its support to Washington in the anti-terrorist war, Beijing has also diminished the prospect of the Bush administration calling for human rights investigation or pushing through a resolution condemning China's rights records at the annual United Nations human rights meeting in Geneva.

Just days before China gained its coveted entry into the global trading club, Robinson urged Chinese leaders during her visit here last week not to use the war against terrorism as an excuse to persecute the Muslim minority of Xinjiang. She said complaints about human rights abuses in Xinjiang have increased since September 11 and urged Beijing to adhere to the guidelines agreed at the recent Durban conference on racial and ethnic discrimination.

But Beijing defended the government crackdown on ethnic separatists in Xinjiang. Vice Premier Qian Qichen told Robinson that China respected the rights of the 8-10 million Muslim population in Xinjiang and made a distinction between them and the thousand or so Uighurs who had trained at the Al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan and elsewhere. To drive home the message, one of China's most popular magazines, Life Weekly, ran a cover story last week entitled "China's Fight against Terrorism" which specifically pointed to Afghan-trained Islamic radicals in Xinjiang as China's primary enemy. For the first time, an official state media had reported that some among the perpetrators of a series of violent acts in Xinjiang in 1997 had been trained in Afghanistan from 1995 until 1997. Once inside China, these Uighur men took charge of acquiring explosives and organized a series of bombings, it said.

Yang Su, an expert on Central Asia at Lanzhou University was quoted by the magazine as saying that "China's stand on fighting against terrorism has always been consistent. What is worth noting is Beijing's choice of the right opportunity to publicize its fight against East Turkestan."

(Inter Press Service)