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Chinese Officials Close down Official Publications in Xinjiang

BEIJING, March 28 (AFP) - Authorities in China's westernmost Muslim-majority Xinjiang region have decided to close down several state-controlled publications, a government official said Thursday.
The official said the move has been forced by the "poor quality" of some of the publications, but a German-based opposition group said the real reason was they might be used to spread the message of Islamic separatist groups.

"There are no political reasons behind the decision," the propaganda official, surnamed Jin, told AFP by telephone from the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi.

"We are trying to save money, since some of the publications don't have very big circulations and often are of poor quality," he said.

The opposition East Turkestan Information Center said in a statement the purpose was to stop dissenting voices in the official media.

"The objective is to prevent (the publications) from being used by separatists to attack the government's policies," the center said.

Another Urumqi official said 52 out of 118 publications would be closed down, including internal government publications aimed at a limited audience because of the sensitive nature of their contents.

In a scathing report on the situation in Xinjiang, the London-based Amnesty International last week said many members of the region's Uighur community who opposed Chinese rule had been branded separatists and brutally dealt with.

"The Chinese government has claimed that 'ethnic separatists' are linked with international 'terrorists' and has called for international support for its crackdown," Amnesty said in a press release.

"However the subjective yardstick of 'terrorism' has been used to detain a broad range of people, some of whom may have done little more than practice their religion or defend their culture."
 

© Uygur.Org  08/08/2002 21:02  A.Karakas