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Police arrest 10 pro-independence
Uighurs in western China
BEIJING, Aug 24 (AFP) - Police in China's
Muslim-majority Xinjiang region have arrested 10
Uighur activists and accused them of plotting
independence and separatism, a rights body and police
said Wednesday.
"Authorities were accusing them of splitting the
country in order to build the East Turkestan Republic,"
said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the German-based
World Uighur Congress.
The 10 members of the Yizhabute group were arrested
because they were advocating independence for the
Xinjiang region, or East Turkestan as Turkic-speaking
Uighurs in the area prefers to call it, he said. The
Wushi county police station in Akesu district
confirmed the arrests but said some have since been
released, while declining to say how many. "They were
involved with illegal organisations," a police officer
who refused to give his name told AFP. "They're
accused of splitting the country." Authorities also
seized a number of documents including the
constitution of the East Turkestan Republic, more than
30 copies of the Koran, some 100 pamphlets on the
region's independence and some 30 audiotapes, the
rights group said.
Most members of the group are Muslim Uighur peasants
who had wanted to announce the independence of the
region as China celebrates the 50th anniversary of its
annexation in October, the group said. "We strongly
demand China release these Uighurs who were seeking
independence through peaceful means," said Raxit.
"China has been arresting people everywhere in
Xinjiang (ahead of) its celebration of the 50th
anniversary and September 11," he said.
Turkic-speaking Uighur separatists have been fighting
to re-establish an independent state of East Turkestan
in Xinjiang since it became an autonomous region of
China in 1955. They accuse the ruling Chinese of
political, religious and cultural repression against
Uighurs in the name of counter-terrorism efforts
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