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China Slams Xinjiang 'Terrorists',
Claims Tolerant Policy
BEIJING, May 26 (AFP) -
China on Monday slammed separatists in its
northwestern Xinjiang region as terrorists, and
painted a glowing picture of its own policy on local
religious beliefs and traditions in the region.
A 55-page document, "History and Development of
Xinjiang", said independence forces in the
predominantly Muslim region had been engaged in
terrorist actions for a decade and linked its
oppression of the groups to the global war on
terrorism.
It was published as President Hu Jintao left Beijing
for a foreign trip that will take him to a Moscow
summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO),
four of whose members share borders with Xinjiang.
The SCO -- grouping China, Russia and four Central
Asian states, all former Soviet republics -- sees
anti-terrorism as one of its main missions.
The document said separatist groups, aiming for an
independent East Turkestan in Xinjiang, started
conducting sabotage in the early 1990s, plotting "a
number of bloody incidents of terror and violence."
Since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United
States, the groups had found themselves in a more
difficult situation because of the global war on
terror, the document said.
"In order to get out of their predicament, the 'East
Turkestan' forces once again have raised the banner of
'human rights', 'freedom of religion' and 'interests
of ethnic minorities'," the document said.
"(They have) fabricated claims that 'the Chinese
government is using every opportunity to oppress
ethnic minorities', to mislead the public and deceive
world opinion," it said.
As China released its document, a group of exiled
Uighurs, members of Xinjiang's largest,
Turkic-speaking minority, sent an open letter to
Russian President Vladimir Putin and other SCO leaders.
"We kindly ask you to bring up the ever-worsening
human rights situation of the Uighur nation during
your upcoming discussions in Moscow," said the letter,
from Germany-based East Turkestan National Congress.
"Especially since the September 11 terrorist attacks,
the Chinese authorities have been intensifying their
policy of crackdown against the Uighur civilian
population," it said.
The crackdown had taken place "under the disguise of
international struggle against terrorism, which in
turn contributes to the destabilization of the entire
Central Asian region," it said.
The Chinese document, meanwhile, claimed that China is
upholding the principle of religious freedom in
Xinjiang, similar to previous statements on the area.
The authorities provide special funds for the
maintenance of mosques, and allow religious figures to
participate in the administration of state affairs, it
said, among a series of examples aimed at showing
China's policy of religious tolerance.
Rights groups claim China is trying to stamp out
nationalist and religious sentiment among Xinjiang's
Muslims and discriminates against them in employment
and education.
They say Beijing is determined never to let go of
Xinjiang and the US-led war on terror has emerged as a
convenient excuse for harsh policies adopted years
earlier.
It is the only part of the country where political
prisoners are still executed regularly and hundreds
are believed to have been put to death since the
mid-1990s.
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