An electronic newsletter Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 27 9 March 1997 In this issue: (1) DISSIDENT GROUP THREATENS 'SIMILAR BOMB ATTACKS' IN PRC
(2) URUMQI XINJIANG TELEVISION NETWORK
(3) AN EXPLOSION ROCKED A BUS
(4) XINJIANG DISCUSSES CLASSIFIED INFORMATION SECURITY
(5) BUS BOMB IN BEIJING KILLS 2, INJURES SIX
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By C.H.Kuo and Sofia Wu Ankara, March 8 (CNA)--Friday's bomb attack in Beijing was carried out by ethnic Uighur nationalists exiled in Kazakhstan, a Turkish-based group claimed on Saturday [8 March]. The Eastern Turkestan National Center, headquartered in Istanbul, said in a statement faxed to CNA's Ankara office that the Eastern Turkestan Liberation Organization was responsible for the explosion at a Beijing bus stop on a busy street on Friday, which reportedly killed three people and injured 10 others. The statement said it was the only action that the organization, formed by exiled Uighur separatists in Kazakhstan, could do to revenge Beijing's despotic rule of Muslims in the restive Xinjiang region. The statement quoted a spokesman of the dissident organization as saying that communist Chinese authorities have jailed more than 5,000 Muslims in Xinjiang since a series of riots began on February 5. The statement added that 1,600 other Muslims have gone missing since then, and that mainland authorities have rejected all requests to visit jailed suspects. The group said it has not ruled out the possibility that some prisoners might have been secretly executed without trial. The statement continued that Uighur Muslims have painstakingly attempted to communicate and negotiate with the Chinese communists to seek a solution to their aspirations for freedom, democracy and independence. However, it said, Beijing has never made any positive response and has instead relied on force to crack down on Uighur Muslims. Exiled Uighur Muslims were forced to take revenge, the statement said, adding that similar bomb attacks will take place until their ultimate goal of a separate state is realized. (2) URUMQI XINJIANG TELEVISION NETWORK
The regional meeting of directors of propaganda departments, which had lasted four days, ended in Urumqi yesterday afternoon. Regional party and government leaders Wang Lequan, Abdulahat Abdurixit, and Mijiti Nasier attended the meeting. Wang Lequan, secretary of the regional party committee, spoke at the meeting. He fully affirmed the region's achievements made in propaganda and ideological work in 1996, and put forward specific views on how to do a better job in future propaganda and ideological work. He called on propaganda departments to bring to light outstanding typical examples in various sectors and at various levels. While paying attention to modern means of propaganda, it is necessary to seek truth from facts, proceed from reality, and attach great importance to the most basic method of propaganda work: face-to-face propaganda work. Whether propaganda work is good or bad is determined by the result and by how much is accepted by the people. Li Kangning, head of the regional party committee propaganda department, made a speech to sum up the meeting. He stressed that propaganda departments at various levels must make clear the situation, seize opportunities, strive to bring about a big development and improvement in propaganda and ideological work, and in the building of the spiritual civilization. It is necessary to carry out work round the center, and firmly grasp key points. The building of the spiritual civilization, and propaganda and ideological work must persistently and firmly take economic construction as the center, and better serve the people, socialism, and the overall situation of the work of the whole party and the whole country. It is necessary to shift the focus of propaganda and ideological work to the vast rural areas and pastureland, and to use socialist ideas to firmly seize positions in rural areas and pastureland. It is necessary to undertake responsibility of work, properly grasp our work, do solid work in a down-to-earth manner, complete one job after another, and make each job a success. (3) AN EXPLOSION ROCKED A BUS
(Provided to WUNN by Bill Mitchell) By SETH FAISON BEIJING -- An explosion rocked a bus during rush-hour Friday evening on a crowded downtown street, alerting police to the possibility that recent bombings and unrest among Muslims in Western China had spread to the nation's capital Reuters reported that two people were killed, but that could not be independently confirmed. The Beijing Daily reported early Saturday that the explosion had caused more than 10 injuries but no deaths, adding that Beijing leaders had visited the scene and that the cause was under investigation. Yet the blast appeared to be placed and timed for maximum impact. Not only did it occur in one of Beijing's most popular shopping areas; it came just two weeks after the death of Deng Xiaoping and half way through the two-week-long convening of China's legislature, the National People's Congress, when delegates from all over the country gather in Beijing. Perhaps most significant, the explosion appeared similar to three simultaneous bombings of buses Feb. 25 in Xinjiang, the Muslim region in Western China, which has been plagued by growing violence in recent months. Terrorist attacks are extremely rare in China, where weapons are hard to obtain and where law enforcement authorities are notoriously strict and harsh in punishment. Friday evening's explosion occurred at 7 p.m. on a cream-and-red Number 22 bus as it passed through Xidan, a highly congested shopping area where a McDonald's is squeezed in between a beeper store and a boutique. The area was closed off for several hours. By midnight, only a handful of police were still at the site, where broken glass and other traces had all been swept away. "Nothing happened," said a uniformed policeman in a heavy green overcoat. When asked the last time such an explosion had occurred in Beijing, he responded: "Never." Although no one immediately took responsibility for the explosion, a young workman in dusty coveralls standing outside a nearby all-night construction site voiced a predictable concern: "It's Xinjiang people. Who else would do it ?" Populated mostly by Uighurs, a Turkic people, Xinjiang is the largest and one of the most volatile regions of China. Those who resent Chinese rule sometimes recall the independent Muslim-ruled republic that was established in 1944, only to be crushed by China's Communists in 1950. Sporadic violence has erupted in Xinjiang over the years. But incidents of rioting and bombings and assassination seem to have been rising in the past year, and though reliable information is rare, the area has been particularly tense since last spring, when rioting in a town called Aksu led to thousands of arrests. Early last month rioting also broke out in Yining, near the Kazakstan border, apparently over the jailing of a resident that neighbors felt was unjust. But the incident that most alarmed Chinese authorities seemed to be the simultaneous detonation of three small bombs in buses in Urumuqi, the capital of Xinjiang, because it showed a certain level of organized resistance, always the highest concern for Communist Party authorities here. After denouncing the "separatists," the authorities promised swift punishment for anyone involved in the bombings. A pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong reported Friday that the authorities had arrested seven suspects in the attacks in Xinjiang, which killed 9 and wounded 74. But an exiled leader of a group seeking independence for the region said his group had nothing to do with the explosion in Beijing. "I am shocked about this event," said the leader, Anwar Yusuf, president of the Eastern Turkestan National Freedom Center in Washington. "We promote nonviolent struggle to get freedom from Chinese rule. We never advocate or promote violence. We don't want to get credit for that bombing." Friday night a few checkpoints were set up around the capital so police could stop and search vehicles. But as usual the authorities seemed to try to make the streets look as normal as possible. (4) XINJIANG DISCUSSES CLASSIFIED INFORMATION SECURITY
(Provided to WUNN by Bill Mitchell) Announcer-read report over video; from the "Xinjiang News" program. The regional conference on management of classified information ended at Urumqi's Kunlun Guesthouse today after a two-week session. Leaders of the regional party, government, and military organizations as well as the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps -- including Zhou Shengtao, Zhang Yunchuan, Hu Jiayan, Yao Tieshan, Zhang Libo – and persons in charge of relevant departments of all prefectures, autonomous prefectures, and cities as well as the region attended the session. [Video begins with a full view of the meeting from the back of the hall, then cuts to show close-ups of the Xinjiang leaders when the names are read] Dong Zhaohe, deputy secretary-general of the regional party committee and vice chairman of the classified information management committee, chaired the meeting. Zhou Shengtao, deputy secretary of the regional party committee and chairman of the classified information management committee, gave an important speech at the meeting. [Video shows medium close-ups of Zhou reading from a prepared speech, then the camera cuts from time to time to show group shots of the attendees, the overwhelming majority of whom appear to be of ethnic Han, reading from apparently the printed version of Zhou's speech] He said: The current session's main agenda was to convey, study, and implement the guidelines laid down by the national conference on classified information management, review the achievements and experiences Xinjiang has made and gained in managing classified information, and put forth assignments for managing Xinjiang's classified information in the future. Zhou Shengtao said: In recent years hostile forces outside Xinjiang have intensified their infiltration and divisive and sabotage activities in Xinjiang and regarded Xinjiang as a target area with classified information they can steal, wildly attempting to turn Xinjiang into a beachhead for achieving their anti-China, anti-Communist, and national separatist goal. [Video shows close-ups of Zhou reading from prepared statement] Zhou Shengtao stressed: The management of classified information now faces a very grave situation. We must strengthen the leadership over the work in this area, fully understand the extreme importance of ensuring the safety of classified information from the political and strategic angle, and constant educate the masses in an effort to heighten their awareness of the need to ensure the safety of classified information. Zhou Shengtao stressed that in Xinjiang, ensuring the safety of classified information is essential for ensuring Xinjiang's stability, development, solidarity among people of all ethnic groups, and the motherland's unification. He urged cadres and masses of all party and government departments, departments in charge of classified information, and units with access to classified information to heighten their sense of discipline in ensuring the safety of classified information, intensify law enforcement, strive to improve their discerning ability and political sensitivity, maintain a high degree of unity with the party Central Committee politically and ideologically as well as in actions, and strive to study new situations and solve new problems so as to safeguard the normal progress of Xinjiang's reforms, opening up, and the construction of spiritual and material civilizations. Attending the meeting were persons in charge from various prefectures, autonomous prefectures, and cities in Xinjiang, units under the Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, and all major departments and bureaus, totaling more than 300 people. [Video ends with a full view of the meeting from the meeting of the hall] (5) BUS BOMB IN BEIJING KILLS 2, INJURES SIX
(Provided to WUNN by Bill Mitchell) STEPHEN HIRD At least two people were killed and several were injured in a bus-bomb attack in Beijing during yesterday's rush hour, Chinese sources said. The cause of the explosion in Xidan, a western shopping district was unknown. But it struck a capital already jittery over a string of bus bombings in restive Xinjiang last month. It was not immediately known if police had made any arrests. An officer from the Beijing Public Security Bureau confirmed an explosion had occurred but would reveal no more information. Emergency room workers at Jishui Tan Hospital said eight casualties with burns to most of their bodies has been taken there. Witnesses said an explosion occurred when a public bus on route No22 pulled up at a stop on North Xidan Avenue. The bomb went off as the door opened, they said. On February 25, in Xinjiang, three bombs planted on buses blew up within minutes of each other in an apparently co-ordinated attack that killed at least nine people and wounded 74. Muslim separatists are believed to have been behind those detonations. The explosion in Xidan if found to be connected with the Xinjiang bomb attacks would be a serious challenge to the Chinese authorities, who have vowed to crack down on the separatists. 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 |