An electronic newsletter Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 23 26 February 1997 In this issue: (1) INDIA CONCERNED OVER ALLEGED CHINESE INTRUSION
(2) CHINA ROCKED AS BOMBS ON XINJIANG BUSES KILL SEVEN
(3) 2 DIE, DOZENS HURT AS BOMBS HIT MUSLIM AREA IN WESTERN CHINA
(4) CHINA UNREST REACT (S/L)
(5) WESTERN CHINA EXPLOSION INJURES DOZENS
(6) CHINA-BLAST : CHINA'S URUMQI UNDER TIGHT SECURITY AFTER BOMB BLAST KILLS ONE
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NEW DELHI - India voiced concern Wednesday over an alleged intrusion by Chinese soldiers into its territory from Tibet. External Affairs Minister Inder Kumar Gujral said the reported intrusion into India's frontier state of Himachal Pradesh was a "serious matter." "It is a serious matter and I will convey the sentiments of the members to the defence minister," Gujral told parliament's lower house during a debate. Opposition member Vijay Kumar Malhotra said "heavily-armed" Chinese troops in the past 14 days crossed over to India and photographed territory in Himachal Pradesh, which borders Tibet. The Chinese troops had intruded six kilometres (3.9 miles/) into Indian territory, Malhotra said and described it as a "danger to the country's security." Gujral said the federal government would publish a statement on the issue within a week. India and China fought a brief but bitter border war in 1962. Bilateral relations between the two Asian neighbours have, however, improved after high-level visits began in 1988. (2) CHINA ROCKED AS BOMBS ON XINJIANG BUSES KILL SEVEN
BEIJING, Feb 26 (AFP) - Moslem separatists shattered China's calm following the death of patriarch Deng Xiaoping by killing at least seven people in three terrorist bombings in Xinjiang, officials and residents said Wednesday. The suspected "freedom fighters" detonated three home-made bombs on public buses in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi late Tuesday. "Seven people were killed and 67 were injured in three explosions on the public buses, but a fourth bomb was found before it exploded," a provincial-level official said. He said he received the information directly from Urumqi's quick-reaction security forces, but spoke on the condition of anonymity. The attack came as Beijing cleared away the last of Deng's funeral wreaths and wound up its six-day mourning period for the patriarch who had condoned often repressive policies in Xinjiang and neighbouring Tibet. Local residents in Urumqi said the paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) had placed cordons across all major access roads in the city and were carrying out identity checks on everybody passing. Military trucks and patrols were also moving through the city center. In addition, plainclothes PAP belonging to Xinjiang's majority Uighur ethnic group were moving through the city and questioning anyone looking vaguely suspicious. The explosions ripped through buses plying routes two, 10 and 44 between 1830 and 1900 local time (1030-1100 GMT) on Tuesday, while a fourth bomb on a bus on route 58 was discovered before it detonated. Sirens immediately sounded all over the city and workers were all told to stay in their work units before being allowed to go home an hour later. Residents contacted by telephone said the explosions were the work of Moslem separatists coming from the cities of Kashgar and Korla in the south of the province. "These people are well-organised and funded by Islamic movements in Afghanistan and Pakistan," a local resident said. "I think these explosions were definitely timed to coincide with the funeral of Comrade Deng Xiaoping," he added. Deng died last Wednesday aged 92, but his successors are equally determined to combat Islamic radicalism, visiting Israeli Foreign Minister David Levy said Wednesday after meeting with President Jiang Zemin. Xinjiang is largely populated by Moslem groups, most importantly the Uighurs who have strong links to neighboring Kazakhstan and speak a language closely related to Turkish. Ethnic Chinese make up 37 percent of the population in Xinjiang, but most were shipped to the region after late Chinese leader Mao Zedong regained control in 1950 following its declaration of independence in 1945 during China's civil war. One young Uighur woman was killed outright when a bomb exploded on a route 10 bus as it stopped to let passengers off near the Xinjiang television broadcasting tower, a student living nearby said. "The number two bus exploded in the middle at the Xibei road bus stop, but it could still move," said an employee working nearby who arrived at the scene within minutes of the explosion. The bus plying route 44 exploded as it was driving through the city, but no further details were available. The bombings came after a crackdown in the frontier town of Yining that was sparked by anti-Chinese riots that left at least 10 dead, according to an official Chinese toll. According to exiled separatists in Kazakhstan, their "freedom fighters" have stepped up efforts to wrench Xinjiang from Beijing's control. More than 2,000 ethnic Chinese have fled their homes in Yining in recent days, escorted back to Urumqi in a convoy of 120 trucks and buses, the exiles said. (3) 2 DIE, DOZENS HURT AS BOMBS HIT MUSLIM AREA IN WESTERN CHINA
BEIJING -- At least one and perhaps two bombs exploded on buses Tuesday in the capital of China's westernmost province of Xinjiang, where Muslim separatists have rioted against Chinese rule. Two people were killed and dozens were wounded. Police spokesmen and hospital officials told news agencies that explosions occurred in the early evening at Urumqi, the capital of the Uighur Autonomous Region. It is a home of the Uighur ethnic minority, which is Muslim and speaks a Turkic-based language. The explosions were said to have occurred on city buses, where in recent weeks the police have discovered and defused several bombs. A spokesman at the People's Hospital told The Associated Press that 21 people had been wounded; other reports said upwards of 60 were hurt. Earlier this month, rioting broke out in Yining, a large city near China's border with Kazakstan, where the police and a largely youthful crowd clashed after policemen made a number of arrests in the final days of Ramadan. Muslims, most of them Uighurs, make up 60 percent of the population of the province, where hundreds of thousands of ethnic Chinese have migrated to work on oil, mineral and other development projects. (4) CHINA UNREST REACT (S/L)
An anthropological expert on China says increasing contact with the outside world is fueling Muslim separatist unrest in China's northwest Xinjiang province. V-O-A's Victor Beattie reports Dru Gladney of the Honolulu-based east-west center expects bombing attacks such as occurred Tuesday to continue even though China has increased security measures: Mr. Gladney says reports of such unrest, including an uprising two weeks ago in a village north of the Urumqi, are becoming more frequent. He says Muslim separatists among the estimated eight-million ethnic Uighur people are coming into frequent contact with foreigners and other Muslims from the former Soviet Union. Mr. Gladney says acts of random terror in Urumqi, a city with a large ethnic Han population, have political and ethnic motives: this kind of random violence is targeting particularly Han Chinese whom the Uighur regard as recent arrivals to a region that they believe belongs to them and in some ways trying to scare some of them away, and it's working. Several months of such bombings have reportedly resulted in the flight of many Han Chinese who have recently migrated to Xinjiang for jobs. Mr. Gladney says some Uighur separatists want what they call an independent "Uighuristan" much like Kazahkstan and Uzbekistan. The anthropologist says last year's national anti-corruption crackdown was extended into Xinjiang aimed at putting down anti-separatist activities: and, it's quite clear that despite increased security these incidents are continuing. Mr. Gladney does not expect the situation to improve until Beijing controls migration and improves economic conditions in the province. He points out that the terrorist incidents do not appear to be efforts at greater religious freedom: it seems to have to do much more with issues related to the land, rights, to access to some of the new jobs coming into the region. There is a lot of money flowing into the region from foreign investment, from economic and energy development. But, the perception is that the jobs are not going to the Uighur. Mr. Gladney says the treatment of the Muslims in Xinjiang will be watched closely by Muslims worldwide who, he says, are quite concerned about the plight of the Uighurs. (5) WESTERN CHINA EXPLOSION INJURES DOZENS
BEIJING - At least 39 people were injured in two explosions on buses in China's western city of Urumqi Tuesday, hospital officials said. An official at the Military Region General Hospital in Urumqi, capital of the restive western region of Xinjiang, said at least 37 injured had been admitted after the two bomb blasts. She declined to give further details. An official at another hospital near the site of one of the blasts said two people who had been slightly injured had been treated and released. The bombs were planted in two city buses and went off at about 6:30 p.m. on the same day China marked Deng's memorial rites on the last of six days of mourning for the paramount leader, who died last Wednesday at age 92. One of the explosions in Urumqi occurred on Northwest Road, involving a vehicle believed to be a minibus, a worker at a nearby hotel said. The second blast occurred at the south gate of the city, officials said. Both explosions were believed to involve time-bombs, possibly set by members of the ethnic Uighur minority, city officials said. "We suspect that these incidents involve splittist elements," said one official, referring to pro-indepenence activists among Xinjiang's native Uighur population. "These people want to disrupt the atmosphere during the memorial ceremonies for Comrade Deng Xiaoping," said another official. No arrests had yet been made, city officials said. "People have been warned not to go outside," one resident said. Roads were blocked for about one hour but normal traffic has since resumed, one resident said. It was the first violence reported in Xinjiang since anti-Chinese riots in the far western Xinjiang town of Yining Feb. 5-6 left nine people dead and 198 wounded. (6) CHINA-BLAST : CHINA'S URUMQI UNDER TIGHT SECURITY AFTER BOMB BLAST KILLS ONE
BEIJING - The capital of northwest China's majority Moslem region of Xinjiang is under tight security after a bomb blast on a public bus killed at least one, sources said Tuesday. "All the roads in the city center are blocked because a bus exploded on the road to the airport late this afternoon," a western businessman said by telephone. "There are police blocks on all the main roads and every vehicle is being searched," he added. A second Asian businessman in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, said the road blocks started around 1900 local time (1100 GMT). "The blocks have lasted more than five hours and I missed my evening meetings," he said. The explosion came only hours after China's leadership bade its final farewell to its patriarch Deng Xiaoping, who died on February 19 aged 92. While Urumqi's public security bureau refused to discuss the blast, a spokeswoman at the Xinjiang People's hospital said at least one person had died from the explosion in the hospital. She refused to give numbers of injured. Xinjiang has been struck by a series of pro-independence terrorist actions in recent months which led to the death of at least 10 people in racial riots in the border town of Yining in early February. According to exiled separatists in Kazakhstan, China has launched a concerted effort to curb all pro-independence activities by arresting 57,000 suspected supporters in 1996. In retaliation, the exiles say, their "freedom fighters" bombed two military vehicles in Urumqi in February last year and then killed 450 troops and militia in a series of attacks in the regional capital in April. Thousands of ethnic Han Chinese have been forced to flee, one of the Kazakhstan-based Uighur Moslem groups said Tuesday. The National United Revolutionary Front said it had been informed by separatist sources that security forces on Sunday escorted more than 2,000 Han Chinese from Yining to Urumqi in a convoy of 120 trucks and buses. Prepared by: Abdulrakhim Aitbayev (rakhim@lochbrandy.mines.edu) WUNN newsletter index*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= The World Uyghur Network News electronic newsletter is produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center (ETIC) in cooperation with the Taklamakan Uighur Human Rights Association (USA), and is devoted to the current political, cultural and economic developments in Eastern Turkistan and to the Uyghur people related issues. Eastern Turkistan (Sherqiy Turkistan in Uyghur) is a name used by the indigenous people of the region for their motherland located in what is at present the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the People's Republic China. The World Uyghur Network News brings information on situation in Eastern Turkistan from the Uyghur and other sources to the attention of the international community. *=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= EASTERN TURKISTAN INFORMATION CENTER |