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Separatists to Stay
even with Growth in China's Muslim Area: Official
BEIJING, Jan 19 (AFP) - China's top official in
restive mostly-Muslim Xinjiang has renewed vows to
crack down on separatism, saying economic growth will
not get rid of separatists, state media said Sunday.
Wang Lequan, Xinjiang's communist party secretary,
said Xinjiang will maintain its tough stance against
those seeking an independent Muslim state and will
quash separatists, the official China News Service
said.
"Currently, there is a belief that the first priority
for Xinjiang is to develop its economy. These people
believe that after Xinjiang's economy develops,
people's living standards will improve so the issue of
stability will be resolved naturally," Wang said.
"This belief is wrong and dangerous. Economic
development cannot eliminate separatists and cannot
prevent them from separating from the motherland and
seeking independence."
China has faced accusations from rights groups that it
is trying to stamp out nationalist and religious
sentiment among the area's majority Uighurs and
discriminates against Uighurs in employment and
education.
Beijing is determined to maintain a tight grip on the
desert area and has used the US-led campaign against
terror as a pretext for harsh policies towards the
Uighurs that have been in place for years, rights
groups charge.
Xinjiang is the only part of the country where
political prisoners are regularly executed. Hundreds
are believed to have been put to death since the
mid-1990s, the advocates say
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