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UPDATE 2-US says allies of China separatists planned
attacks
Erkin Dolat
ABEIJING, Aug 30 (Reuters) - The U.S. embassy in
Beijing said on Friday an Islamic group seeking
independence for China's Xinjiang region and just
added to Washington's list of terrorist groups had
planned attacks on
foreign missions in Kyrgyzstan.
``There is evidence indicating that ETIM members have
been planning attacks against embassies, trade centres
and public gathering places in Kyrgyzstan,'' an
embassy spokesman said.
Two suspected members of the East Turkestan Islamic
Movement (ETIM) were deported to China from Kyrgyzstan
in May on the grounds they were planning attacks, the
spokesman said.
``The Kyrgz government stated that the two men were
planning to target embassies in Bishkek as well as
trade centres and public gathering places,'' he said,
declining to elaborate on the embassies involved,
citing security concerns.
When top U.S. envoy for counterterrorism General
Francis X. Taylor visited Beijing last December, he
said the United States did not view the group as a
terrorist organisation.
But Washington added the group, which is campaigning
for an independent East Turkestan in China's
northwestern region of Xinjiang where Turkic-speaking
Muslim Uighurs live, to its list of terrorist bodies
following months of talks with Beijing. Monday's
announcement was made a day after China published
regulations to tighten controls over missile-related
exports long awaited by the United States.
UIGHURS DENY TERROR
A Sweden-based spokesman for the East Turkestan
Information Centre said the
ETIM was not a terrorist organisation but had resorted
to violence because Uighurs had no other means of
expression. Uighurs would never target western
countries from which they needed support, he said. The
information centre had no links with the the
separatist group, he added.
``I think there are many issues related to the U.S.
decision. On the one hand, China was taking this as an
exchange condition for controlling arms exports,'' he
said by telephone.
``It may also have been related to the Iraq problem.
If the U.S. does want to go to war, it needs support
from China, a good friend of Arab nations,'' he said.
Beijing called for international support in January
for what it called its own war against terrorism as it
published a paper saying the ETIM was supported and
directed by Saudi-born militant Osama bin Laden,
blamed for
the September 11 attacks.
The paper said dozens of group members were trained in
Afghanistan during Taliban rule, re-entered Xinjiang
and set up secret cells. It said Uighur militants had
killed 162 people and wounded more than 440 between
1990 and 2001. China has been working closely with
central Asian nations to fight Islamic militancy in
the region and Kyrgyzstan police are investigating
whether the murder of a Chinese diplomat there in June
was carried out by
pro-independence Uighurs. Western analysts say China
threw its support behind the war on terror the United
States launched after the September 11 attacks on New
York and Washington partly to legitimise its crackdown
on Uighurs. Some Western analysts are sceptical that
there is a unified Uighur independence movement and
say most Uighurs are struggling against cultural and
economic inequalities. London-based Amnesty
International has said it is concerned Beijing might
use the war on terror to crack down on Uighurs. Rights
groups say Uighurs suffer religious persecution.
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