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Sept. 11: Chinese Muslims face backlash
By Christian M. Wade
From the International Desk
Published 9/4/2002 7:36 PM
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(Part of UPI's Special Package on Sept. 11)
SHANGHAI, CHINA (UPI) -- In a small apartment in this
city's bustling Muslim quarter, a group of young men
kneel together for evening prayers, quietly chanting
verses from the Koran. On the eastern wall hangs an
antique clock, set two hours behind Beijing time to
the northwestern region of Xinjiang.
The men, all Turkic-speaking Uighurs, cannot worship
at any of Shanghai's half-dozen mosques, as they would
risk being spotted by undercover police informants
searching for suspected Islamic militants.
Many of them are fugitives who fled Xinjiang last year
during a violent crackdown on separatists. Some
refused to speak with a reporter from United Press
International, who recently visited their underground
mosque in Shanghai, fearing they would be identified
by authorities and subsequently arrested.
Beijing is fighting a war against separatists in
Xinjiang, a vast, predominately Muslim region, which
for centuries linked the East and the West along
winding trade routes that mark the ancient Silk Road.
"We are under constant surveillance, but things are
worse back home," said Tusin, 41, who fled his small
city in Xinjiang with his wife and two children last
month, following a recent crackdown. "Many people are
still being arrested. The Chinese authorities have
closed down hundreds of down schools and mosques."
Uighurs make up roughly 47 percent of Xinjiang's 18
million people and are linguistically and culturally
different from China's Han ethnic majority. They had
their own republic, called East Turkestan, shortly
before the communists took power in 1949, and
anti-Chinese sentiment has escalated ever since then.
Adil, a 35-year-old former schoolteacher, said he left
his home in the city of Hotan last year after police
arrested and imprisoned his older brother, a goat
herder, on charges of "plotting to overthrow the state."
"He was innocent, but the police claimed he was
providing shelter for the separatists," he said. "I
don't know if he is still alive. They won't tell me.
I've heard many of the those arrested have been
executed."
Following the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States,
China launched a major offensive in Xinjiang, sending
soldiers into the region's cities and towns to close
mosques and arrest scores of suspected separatists.
"The crackdown in the region has intensified (since
Sept. 11) ... with pro-independence supporters being
branded as 'separatists' or 'terrorists'," the human
rights group Amnesty International said last month. "Uighurs
... have been the main target -- mosques have been
closed down, Islamic clergy have been detained, and
Uighur books have been burnt.
"Freedom of expression and association have been
severely restricted and thousands of people remain
imprisoned across the region as political prisoners or
prisoners of conscience."
Thousands of young Muslim men fled to other regions of
the country following the crackdown, while others
escaped to nearby countries, such as Tajikistan and
Kyrgyzstan, slipping out through China's porous
mountain borders.
In January, China published a lengthy report alleging
the East Turkestan Islamic Movement -- a small group
of Islamic militants fighting for autonomy in Xinjiang
-- had received money, weapons and training from Osama
bin Laden's al Qaida, the group held responsible for
the Sept. 11 attacks.
The report claimed bin Laden had coordinated the
activities of hundreds of heavily trained fighters and
financed several underground terrorist camps near
China's far western border with Afghanistan.
Human rights groups and Western analysts say this was
the opening salvo in the Chinese government's renewed
efforts to win its own war against terrorism and the
prelude to a major crackdown in the region.
"Jailing community leaders and intellectuals on trumped
up 'state secrets' charges and repressing Uighur
culture has nothing to do with combating 'terrorism',"
Amnesty said. "It is a systematic denial of basic
human rights."
Yet Uighur dreams of independence were dealt another
blow last week after the U.S. State Department said it
had added the ETIM to its list of terrorist
organizations and agreed to freeze the group's assets.
Less than a week later, the U.S. embassy in Beijing
said for the first time it had evidence that the group
was planning terrorist attacks on foreign embassies
and interests in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan.
"We have evidence that the ETIM have been planning
attacks against U.S. interests abroad," a U.S. embassy
spokeswoman told UPI, refusing to comment on the
apparent shift in policy.
China's foreign ministry in Beijing refused a request
to answer specific questions from UPI about the U.S.
allegations against the ETIM, but instead issued a
brief statement welcoming last week's decision.
"China is prepared to make joint efforts, enhance
mutual consultations and deepen bilateral co-operation
with the US in the fight against terrorism," the
foreign ministry statement said.
Chinese scholars say the move indicates the Bush
administration is sympathetic to Beijing's concerns.
"In the past, China and the U.S. have differed on the
question of whether the Xinjiang separatists are
terrorists," said Zhu Feng, a professor at Beijing
University's School of International Relations. "Now
it seems there is a unified stance on this issue, and
that's a step toward positive relations."
Uighur groups in exile say they seek freedom from
China's social and economic domination and claim the
suicide hijacking attacks were used to justify the
suppression of Uighurs and gross violations of their
civil rights.
"The Chinese government has used the Sept. 11 attacks
as an excuse to impose a brutal crackdown on religion,
education and culture among Uighur minorities in
Xinjiang," Abduljelil Karkash, president of the
Munich-based East Turkestan Information Center, told
UPI. "We were linked falsely to terrorist groups."
One year later, Beijing has increased its efforts to "assimilate"
the Uighurs, by restricting their religion and
language, and imposing strict birth control measures
including forced abortion and sterilization, he said.
Similarly, the U.S. State Department's listing of the
ETIM as a terrorist group means Xinjiang's struggling
liberation movement is now fighting a war on two
fronts: one at home, against the Chinese government's
repressive policies, and the other overseas, to win
back the support of the international community.
"We are completely shocked by the U.S. allegations," he
said. "Our movement is not connected with the
terrorist activities of al Qaida or Osama bin Laden
and it does not condone attacks on U.S. interests."
To date, neither government has provided verifiable
proof of a link between bin Laden and the separatists
in Xinjiang, though U.S.-led forces in Afghanistan did
capture Chinese Muslims fighting with the Taliban.
Hasan Mahsum, the ETIM's leader and China's most-wanted
fugitive, denied allegations that his group had ties
with bin Laden and al Qaida during an interview with
Radio Free Asia in January.
But the existence of such a group has apparently been
enough to convince the Bush administration, and
Uighurs say they fear the U.S. move will further
sanction China to crush any remaining peaceful dissent.
"We are fighting for our freedom, not for the overthrow
of Western governments," said Tusin. "Our anger is not
directed against the U.S. and the international
community, but against the Chinese government."
Copyright © 2002 United Press International
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