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China Sentences 21 Xinjiang Separatists at Public Rally in China

BEIJING, Nov 15 (AFP) - A group of 21 separatists from the tense Muslim-majority Chinese region of Xinjiang were among people sentenced at a public rally, local police said Thursday. 

In all 28 people were put to trial before Sunday's rally in the town of Wushi, two of whom were given death sentences and immediately executed, said a police spokesman who gave his name as Zhang.  

Police said those put to death were ordinary criminals convicted of murder and armed robbery.  

Of two other people given suspended death sentences, one was a separatist who had planned an attack with a home-made bomb, said Zhang.  

However a group representing the ethnic Uighhur population of Xinjiang said all of those executed and given suspended death sentences were separatism activists.  

Another 20 separatists were given prison terms of between eight and 20 years, said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the German-based East Turkestan Information Centre, a group named after the independent state sought by some Uighurs.  

Rights groups have warned that China is carrying out a major crackdown on religious and political dissent in Xinjiang under the guise of anti-terrorism following the September 11 terror attacks on United States.  

During a visit to China last week, United Nations Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson warned Beijing it should not use the global fight against anti-terrorism as an excuse for repression in Xinjiang.  

The separatism campaign in the region has seen occasional violent incidents such as bombings over recent years.  

Beijing insists the Xinjiang "terrorists" are financed, trained and supplied by international groups including the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden, suspected of being behind the September 11 attacks.  

However rights groups say the vast majority of separatists in Xinjiang, which borders Afghanistan in China's far west, are peaceful.  

The East Turkestan Information Centre said Sunday's sentencing rally has part of an unjust crackdown on legitimate dissent.  

"We strongly condemn this action by the Chinese government and urge the international community to put pressure on China to stop its oppression," said Raxit.  

"It is remarkable that China will do this so shortly after the UN Human Rights Commissioner was in China," he added.  

State media announced recently a major campaign had been launched in Xinjiang against crime and religious and to "educate" the public.  

More than 1,700 Communist Party cadres and officials were assigned to head into areas of the Uighur-dominated city of Kashgar in southern Xinjiang to "get to know" the residents at grass-roots level, said the Xinjiang Legal Daily, seen in Beijing Wednesday.

© Uygur.Org  15/11/2001 19:10  A.Karakas