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China Steps Up Fight Against Muslim Extremists
Mon December 23, 2002 06:32 AM ET
BEIJING (Reuters) - China's Communist party boss in
the northwestern region of Xinjiang has called on
officials to intensify their fight against separatists
and religious extremism, the semi-official China News
Service said on Monday.
It quoted party chief Wang Lequan as saying government
and party officials should step up their campaign
against "three forces," previously identified by state
media as religious extremism, ethnic separatism and
terrorism.
Wang's call came just days after U.S. rights envoy
Lorne Craner visited the region, inhabited by Muslim
ethnic Uighurs and growing numbers of migrant Han
Chinese, to urge greater religious freedom and the
release of political prisoners.
"Xinjiang will keep up the pressure in cracking down
on the 'three forces' from beginning to end to
maintain social stability," the news service quoted
Wang as telling a party meeting.
Washington added a group campaigning for an
independent Xinjiang, the East Turkestan Islamic
Movement, to its list of terror organizations this
year.
The U.S. move sparked concerns from foreign rights
groups that Beijing might use this to justify a
long-running crackdown on dissent in Xinjiang amid
suspicions among some Western diplomats that it was
politically driven.
Beijing has thrown its weight behind Washington's war
on terror and urged the international community to
support its own fight against Uighur separatists.
China has accused Uighur separatists of joining forces
with Osama bin Laden and of bombings and other
violence.
But rights groups abroad say innocent Uighurs are
stripped of their right to worship freely and suffer
persecution.
Craner, who met Chinese officials when he was in
Xinjiang, said his talks on rights were cordial, but
he had hoped they would be more productive.
He said reports of religious repression in Xinjiang
remain of tremendous concern to Washington and he
would welcomed future opportunities to engage more
openly and frankly on such issues.
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