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China steps up "political
re-education campaign" for Xinjiang mosque leaders
Text of
report by Vivien Pik-Kwan Chan, entitled: "Mosque
leaders' re-education campaign stepped up"; published
by Hong Kong newspaper South China Morning Post
(Business Post supplement) on 14 November
Beijing has intensified a nine-month "political
re-education campaign" for 8,000 imams in charge of
mosques in Xinjiang as national security forces step
up their drive against "splittist" movements.
Another 15-member "special working team" from the
central government was sent earlier this month to
Xinjiang's key party units and government departments
to keep watch on local cadres in a bid to maintain
stability in the region.
Beijing was alarmed by the 11 September terrorist
attack on New York and has used the incident as an
excuse to crack down on Uighurs in Xinjiang.
Senior cadres in Xinjiang had been urged to maintain
loyalty to the central government and have been warned
that they would be held responsible for disturbances
caused by Uighur separatists, Beijing sources said.
The imam "patriotic re-education" campaign - which was
launched on 15 March and will run until 23 December -
has been organized by Beijing's United Front Work
Department and State Bureau of Religious Affairs and
is a move to tighten controls on religious activities
and to sever ties between mosques and alleged
separatist activities.
About 8,000 religious chiefs have been assigned to one
of the 10 sessions of the political re-education
lessons. They are required to attend seminars,
participate in ideological discussions and individual
consultations with a special focus on "anti-splittism"
law, religious and political policies set by the
government, and, Xinjiang history.
"Each session is a 20-day programme aimed at
re-establishing correct ideological understanding and
improving the political qualities of the religious
leaders," Xinhua quoted officials as saying. "These
lessons are essential to the long-term stability of
Xinjiang as they will guide our students away from
ideological confusion and mistakes," Xinhua said.
Authorities suspect that donations given to mosques by
Xinjiang worshippers have been used to fund the
separatist cause.
Uighur militants have been blamed for sporadic attacks
in China, including bus bombs in the Xinjiang capital,
Urumqi, in 1997 that killed nine people.
Similar patriotic education courses were started in
1996 in Tibet to counter infiltration by the Dalai
Lama. The European Union said thousands of lamas and
nuns had been expelled for refusing to denounce the
Dalai Lama in the five-years since a patriotic
education campaign was set up in Tibet.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson
urged leaders during her visit to Beijing last week
not to use the war on terrorism to crack down on civil
liberties and ethnic minorities, especially in its
Muslim northwest.
Source: South China Morning Post (Business Post
supplement), Hong Kong, in English 14 Nov 01
/BBC Monitoring/ © BBC.
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