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Produced by the Eastern Turkistan Information Center No: 85 26 August 1998 In this issue (1) XINJIANG 'NOT SO DANGEROUS'
(2) FOWL PLOT TO HUNT CHINESE LOCUSTS
(3) HOW DO WE GET OUT OF THIS CHICKEN OUTFIT?
(4) TOP INDONESIAN OFFICIAL SAYS ORGANIZED-RAPE CHARGES FABRICATED
(5) CLINTON PICKS CHINA EXPERT FROM ACADEMIA AS ASIAN ADVISOR
(6) XINJIANG 'SPLITTIST' SMUGGLERS TARGETED
(7) RUSSIA SUPPORTS THE UYGHUR SEPARATISTS TO HOLD TALKS WITH BEIJING
(8) XINJIANG POLICEMEN KILLED
(9) '8 OFFICERS KILLED' IN XINJIANG
(10) BLASTS HIT XINJIANG FOLLOWING JIANG VISIT
*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= (1) XINJIANG 'NOT SO DANGEROUS'
CHAN YEE HON in Torpan, Xinjiang Xinjiang is no more dangerous than any other part of the world, the region's Vice-Chairman said yesterday. Noting that terrorists had struck recently in Northern Ireland and Africa, Zhang Zhou said "nothing has happened" in Xinjiang in the past eight months. The autonomous region has previously been subjected to terrorist attacks by separatist groups. "After eight months of arrests and suppressions since the end of last year, no incidents have happened this year," Mr Zhang said. eports] However, a Hong Kong human rights group reported two weeks ago that eight policemen were assassinated in Kashgar by Muslim separatists who attacked a police station. Xinjiang officials have not confirmed that the event took place. In May, Mr Zhang told foreign journalists that fewer than 100 criminals had been arrested and sentenced for murder, arson, causing explosions and other terrorist activities in cities like Yining and Urumqi. But Mr Zhang stressed that activities by separatists in Xinjiang were "under control" and the situations were "stable and secure". He said the terrorists represented a "small minority", and the Government had smashed several terrorist groups in the past eight months. (2) FOWL PLOT TO HUNT CHINESE LOCUSTS
Pest control officials in North-West China have resorted to desperate measures to tackle a plague of locusts which is infesting a huge area of grassland. They have brought in an army of 10,000 chickens - backed by air support from thousands of starlings - to gobble up some of the millions of locusts which have descended on Xinjiang in the Uygur autonomous region. According to Xinhua newsagency, the elite fowl undergo 60 days training shortly after they hatch to prepare them for battle with the locusts. WORST INFESTATION And battle it is, because this year's infestation is said to be the worst in the region for a decade, with a quarter of Xinjiang's grasslands affected. There were no details given of the chicken training programme. The newspaper China Youth Daily said the chickens had succeeded in taking on the pests where all else failed. But the insect-eating chickens are only one prong in the region's assault on the swarms of locusts. Xinjiang pest control officials are also encouraging starlings to settle in the area by placing nests in the grassland area. PESTICIDE ALTERNATIVE Last month environmentalists in the port city of Tianjin released five million wasps to attack insects which had been damaging crops. The BBC Correspondent in Beijing, Colin Blane, says it is thought Chinese scientists are being encouraged to find ways of reducing the use of chemical pesticides. The introduction of chickens and starlings as instruments of pest control is a reverse of the disastrous experiment of the 1950s when the whole nation was urged to scare sparrows away from crops by beating drums for hours on end. Unable to land, the sparrows died from exhaustion and the crops were then destroyed by a booming insect population. (3) HOW DO WE GET OUT OF THIS CHICKEN OUTFIT?
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has trained an army of 10,000 chickens to wage war on locusts in northwestern Xinjiang, Xinhua news agency reported on Tuesday. The chickens, backed by tens of thousands of starlings, were called in after attacks by humans and aircraft failed to eradicate swarms of the hungry insects that had infested grasslands, housing complexes and offices, the agency said. ``The chickens undergo a special 60-day training program shortly after birth,'' the report said, but gave no details of the young birds' training regimen. Numerous nests were placed in the area to attract the starlings. Xinjiang's worst locust infestation in a decade has affected 174,500 hectares (431,000 acres) of grassland, about a fourth of grass-covered plains in the remote Moslem region, Xinhua said. (4) TOP INDONESIAN OFFICIAL SAYS ORGANIZED-RAPE CHARGES FABRICATED
[CND, 08/24/98] The Associated Press reported, quoting Lieutenant General Moetojib, Chief of Indonesia's State Intelligence, as saying that investigators have failed to find evidence that alleged rapes during riots in May in Jakarta and that reports of sexual abuse may have been fabricated. Moetojib said his agents visited the sites of alleged rapes and inquired at many hospitals around the city, but failed to find any evidence of widespread rape. "No one can provide evidence that the incidents occurred in the middle of May." Moetojib said he believed the reports were fabricated: "I have come to the conclusion that the rumors were spread for political purposes to defame Indonesia in the international arena and to disintegrate national unity." It has been claimed by women's rights groups that at least 168 Chinese- Indonesian women and girls were raped and 1,200 people were killed in the riots in May. (Ray ZHANG, Charles MOK) (5) CLINTON PICKS CHINA EXPERT FROM ACADEMIA AS ASIAN ADVISOR
[CND, 08/23/98] A professor from the University of Michigan is to take over the top advisory role in Asian affairs to the president, AFP reported on Saturday. Kenneth Lieberthal, a China expert, is to replace Sandra Kristoff as the senior director in the National Security Council. Lieberthal has published widely on China and served as director of Chinese Studies at the University of Michigan between 1986 and 1989. Lieberthal is a graduate of Columbia University. (Dong LIU, YIN De An) (6) XINJIANG 'SPLITTIST' SMUGGLERS TARGETED
Beijing's new anti-smuggling drive has become a weapon for authorities in the mostly Muslim region of Xinjiang to crack down on separatist activity. Apart from the usual array of cars, metals and other goods slipped past authorities in the far-flung northwest, guns were also being smuggled into the region to help the separatist movement, the Xinjiang Daily said. "There have been cases of extremely small numbers of domestic ethnic splittists linking up with foreign reactionaries to smuggle guns and ammunition, drugs and reactionary propaganda," the paper said. Customs, police and border guards had launched a special anti-smuggling campaign to "especially strike at the criminal activity of smuggling guns and ammunition, drugs, rare metals and rare animals", it said. Xinjiang's anti-smuggling campaign is part of a nation-wide drive spearheaded by senior leaders including President Jiang Zemin and Premier Zhu Rongji to crack down on rampant illicit trade in everything from cigarettes to machinery that cost Beijing millions of dollars each year in lost taxes. (7) RUSSIA SUPPORTS THE UYGHUR SEPARATISTS TO HOLD TALKS WITH BEIJING
The Russian officials are closely watching the development of the situation in Xinjiang after they realized the tense situation. Russia may support talks between the Uyghur separatists and Beijing. Radio Moscow, by quoting the Russian media, reported that Russia doesn't hope to see Xinjiang become "an instable area in Asia". It doesn't hope to see the neighboring "Central Asian regions become restless" as a result of it. Moscow should pursue a "condemn three and support two" policy, which are: condemn the terrorist activities of the Uyghur and other separatists; condemn the foreign forces involved in separatism; condemn the Chinese Communist Party and the local government invading the human rights, damaging the property, and restricting the political and economical freedoms of the indeginious people. Support Beijing to hold peaceful talks with Uyghur independence activists; support Xinjiang to develop its economy for the welfare of all people. To support Uyghur independence activists to hold talks with Beijing due to the rise of Uyghur independence movements is possibly Russia's new creation of international trends. Radio Moscow has randomly reported the situation of Xinjiang as a result of the sensitive relations between Russia and China's Xinjiang region in the past. However, it has never reported as to what kind of policy Russia should pursue. This time the broadcast of the pursued policy certainly expresses the pressure of the local region [Xinjiang]. (8) XINJIANG POLICEMEN KILLED
The Chinese media says at least three policemen have been killed by separatists in China's northwest region of Xinjiang. The official Xinjiang Daily newspaper says one man died in a gun battle with separatists who were allegedly planning attacks during the visit to China earlier this year by President Clinton. The BBC Beijing correspondent says the reports come amid signs of continuing unrest in Xinjiang, an autonomous and largely Muslim region close to the border with Kazakhstan. (9) '8 OFFICERS KILLED' IN XINJIANG
Eight police officers were killed in Xinjiang this week in attacks locals believe were the work of separatists, a human rights group reported yesterday. Kashgar, near the mainland's border with Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, had been under curfew since Monday's killings, the Information Centre of Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China said. The group said the city was tense. It did not give details about the incidents. Local sources believed the attacks were carried out by separatists, who have long waged a battle to set up an independent East Turkestan in the heavily Muslim region. Mainland officials could not be reached for comment.President Jiang Zemin visited the restive region last month and issued an appeal for ethnic unity. (10) BLASTS HIT XINJIANG FOLLOWING JIANG VISIT
JASPER BECKER in Beijing Several bombs have gone off in Xinjiang in the wake of a visit by President Jiang Zemin to check on the campaign to crush its growing pro-independence movement. Explosions rocked the oasis town of Khotan, in the south of the region, two weeks ago. "The bombs went off in the Chinese quarter outside the party headquarters," said a Western traveller. "I was told there were three or four, but no one was injured. Things are very tense in Xinjiang. There is an armed police presence in many places. There's a state of high alert." Officials in Khotan confirmed there had been explosions, but denied they were caused by bombs. "I don't know exactly what happened," said one. "I heard it was just some small detonators, not real bombs." Another official, from the party's Legal Committee offices, said: "The detonating device was very small and no one was injured." Ten days ago, a bomb went off in Korla, on the northern edge of the Taklamakhan desert. Sources said bomb makers set off the device by mistake and killed themselves. An official in Korla said there had been an explosion but it was not a bomb. "There was an explosion of cooking gas caused by a careless resident," she said. During his five-day visit which ended in mid-July, President Jiang called for joint efforts to continue the crackdown on the separatist movement, saying it would be a long-term struggle. His visit followed a summit with Central Asian leaders in Kazakhstan at which they pledged to fight against terrorism and religious fundamentalism. The authorities rounded up thousands, some say tens of thousands, of Uygur suspects after rioting in Yining city left hundreds dead or injured in February last year and a series of home-made bombs exploded in the capital, Urumqi, claiming at least nine lives. Uygur terrorists have also murdered Muslim clerics and Uygur officials appointed by the Chinese authorities. In April this year, police and independence fighters fought a gun battle in which at least three died in Yili. Three Uygurs were executed in May after being found guilty of murdering three Chinese peasants as part of a rebel strategy to sow terror among Chinese settlers. 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 |