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China Says
Terror Suspect Handed over by Pakistan
May 27, 2002
URUMQI, China (AP) _ Chinese officials said Monday
that Pakistan has caught and sent home a Chinese
Muslim accused by Beijing of helping lead a violent
separatist group in China's restive northwest.
Officials said Ismail Kadir was handed over to China
in March and is the third-highest leader of the East
Turkestan Islamic Movement. Beijing claims the group
is connected to Osama bin Laden. Foreign experts on
China's Xinjiang territory, also called East
Turkestan, say they have no knowledge of the group.
Kadir would be among the first terror suspects wanted
by China to be extradited following Sept. 11.
In Pakistan, a senior Interior Ministry official
confirmed Kadir's repatriation to China, saying the
man had been arrested in March.
``He was sent back to China after being interrogated,''
the official who spoke only on condition of anonymity
told The Associated Press. He gave no further details.
Chinese officials also said they are asking the United
States to return 300 members of China's Muslim Uighur
(pronounced ``WEE-guhr'') ethnic minority they said
were captured fighting for bin Laden's al-Qaida
network in Afghanistan.
The information was released at rare news conferences
by the senior Communist Party official and police
commanders for Xinjiang. The predominantly Muslim
territory in China's northwest shares borders with
Pakistan, Afghanistan and central Asian republics.
China claims that Uighurs waging a low-intensity and
sometimes violent campaign for independence in
Xinjiang are part of a global terror network.
The United States has rejected China's claims and
called for a political settlement. Some foreign
scholars say China is exaggerating the threat. They
say some Uighurs trained in Afghanistan but that
militant separatists are few and poorly organized.
Pakistan is one of few countries to have backed
Beijing. On a visit last December, Pakistani President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf promised to ``wholeheartedly
support'' China's efforts to crush Uighur separatists,
Chinese state media reported.
China has long cultivated strong ties with Pakistan
and provides it with military hardware and other
technology.
Kadir fled Xinjiang after Sept. 11, said Wang Lequan,
Xinjiang's Communist Party secretary. Wang said Kadir
was caught by Pakistan authorities while meeting
underground Muslim groups in the Pakistani-controlled
portion of Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region.
``He was caught and is right now in our hands,'' said
Wang at his news conference in Urumqi, Xinjiang's
regional capital.
Wang said he didn't know other details about the case.
But he said China finds it ``hard to understand and a
pity that some people do not believe that our efforts
to fight terrorism are part of the international
campaign.''
Police officials would say only that Kadir is being
prosecuted. But they refused to say on what charges or
whether he had been convicted.
Police and party officials rejected accusations by
human rights groups that Chinese authorities are
misusing global anti-terrorist sentiment to suppress
peaceful dissent Xinjiang.
Aziz Ait, deputy director general of the paramilitary
People's Armed Police in Xinjiang, said the number of
terrorist incidents has declined, though he did not
give details and said he could not give an estimate of
how many active terrorists there are in the region.
``It is not safe to say Xinjiang is completely free of
terrorist attacks, so we have to remain on guard,''
Ait said.
Liu said Xinjiang authorities broke up six groups in
the first half of this year that were plotting attacks.
``They were terrorists making guns or weapons and were
caught. They didn't have time to commit terrorist
attacks before they were caught,'' he said.
Wang, the party secretary, said China believes that
more than 1,000 Uighurs were trained by bin Laden's
forces in Afghanistan. About 110 came back to China in
recent years and were captured, he said.
He said about 300 were captured by U.S. forces, about
20 were killed, and about 600 were thought to have
escaped to northern Pakistan. Wang said his
information came from ``intelligence reports'' that he
did not further specify.
Zhang Qiyue, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said
China has received no response from Washington to its
request that the captured Uighurs be returned.
May 27, 2002
URUMQI, China (AP) _ Chinese officials said Monday
that Pakistan has caught and sent home a Chinese
Muslim accused by Beijing of helping lead a violent
separatist group in China's restive northwest.
Officials said Ismail Kadir was handed over to China
in March and is the third-highest leader of the East
Turkestan Islamic Movement. Beijing claims the group
is connected to Osama bin Laden. Foreign experts on
China's Xinjiang territory, also called East
Turkestan, say they have no knowledge of the group.
Kadir would be among the first terror suspects wanted
by China to be extradited following Sept. 11.
In Pakistan, a senior Interior Ministry official
confirmed Kadir's repatriation to China, saying the
man had been arrested in March.
``He was sent back to China after being interrogated,''
the official who spoke only on condition of anonymity
told The Associated Press. He gave no further details.
Chinese officials also said they are asking the United
States to return 300 members of China's Muslim Uighur
(pronounced ``WEE-guhr'') ethnic minority they said
were captured fighting for bin Laden's al-Qaida
network in Afghanistan.
The information was released at rare news conferences
by the senior Communist Party official and police
commanders for Xinjiang. The predominantly Muslim
territory in China's northwest shares borders with
Pakistan, Afghanistan and central Asian republics.
China claims that Uighurs waging a low-intensity and
sometimes violent campaign for independence in
Xinjiang are part of a global terror network.
The United States has rejected China's claims and
called for a political settlement. Some foreign
scholars say China is exaggerating the threat. They
say some Uighurs trained in Afghanistan but that
militant separatists are few and poorly organized.
Pakistan is one of few countries to have backed
Beijing. On a visit last December, Pakistani President
Gen. Pervez Musharraf promised to ``wholeheartedly
support'' China's efforts to crush Uighur separatists,
Chinese state media reported.
China has long cultivated strong ties with Pakistan
and provides it with military hardware and other
technology.
Kadir fled Xinjiang after Sept. 11, said Wang Lequan,
Xinjiang's Communist Party secretary. Wang said Kadir
was caught by Pakistan authorities while meeting
underground Muslim groups in the Pakistani-controlled
portion of Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region.
``He was caught and is right now in our hands,'' said
Wang at his news conference in Urumqi, Xinjiang's
regional capital.
Wang said he didn't know other details about the case.
But he said China finds it ``hard to understand and a
pity that some people do not believe that our efforts
to fight terrorism are part of the international
campaign.''
Police officials would say only that Kadir is being
prosecuted. But they refused to say on what charges or
whether he had been convicted.
Police and party officials rejected accusations by
human rights groups that Chinese authorities are
misusing global anti-terrorist sentiment to suppress
peaceful dissent Xinjiang.
Aziz Ait, deputy director general of the paramilitary
People's Armed Police in Xinjiang, said the number of
terrorist incidents has declined, though he did not
give details and said he could not give an estimate of
how many active terrorists there are in the region.
``It is not safe to say Xinjiang is completely free of
terrorist attacks, so we have to remain on guard,''
Ait said.
Liu said Xinjiang authorities broke up six groups in
the first half of this year that were plotting attacks.
``They were terrorists making guns or weapons and were
caught. They didn't have time to commit terrorist
attacks before they were caught,'' he said.
Wang, the party secretary, said China believes that
more than 1,000 Uighurs were trained by bin Laden's
forces in Afghanistan. About 110 came back to China in
recent years and were captured, he said.
He said about 300 were captured by U.S. forces, about
20 were killed, and about 600 were thought to have
escaped to northern Pakistan. Wang said his
information came from ``intelligence reports'' that he
did not further specify.
Zhang Qiyue, a Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said
China has received no response from Washington to its
request that the captured Uighurs be returned.
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