ASIA: China issues wanted list of Muslim separatistsTerror China
BEIJING, Dec 15 Reuters - China today released awanted list of Muslim separatist groups and individuals,accusing them of acts of terror and appealing to foreigngovernments to ban the groups and hand over the wantedindividuals.
One day after the capture of toppled Iraqi leaderSaddam Hussein, China’s Ministry of Public Securityfingered four groups in the restive northwest and 11ethnic Uighur suspects - all of whom remain at large.
They have planned, organised and carried out aseries of violent terrorist activities such as bombings,assassinations, arsons, poisonings and attacks,'' ZhaoYongchen, deputy chief of the ministry's anti-terrorbureau, said in a statement. He appealed to other governments to ban the groups,prohibit them from receiving support or asylum andfreeze their accounts; and to prosecute and investigatethe wanted individuals and hand them over to China. One of the groups named today was the East TurkestanIslamic Movement (ETIM), which Washington added to itsterrorist list last year at Beijing's request. China says ETIM members trained at bases run by Osamabin Laden's al-Qaeda network in Afghanistan and, withTaliban backing, returned to Xinjiang to plot violence.Police said Hasam Mahsum, a key figure in ETIM, wasamong the 11 wanted. The other three organisations were the EasternTurkestan Liberation Organisation (ETLO), the WorldUighur Youth Congress (WUYC) and the Eastern TurkistanInformation Centre (ETIC). China, which threw its weight behind President GeorgeW Bush's war on terror and won US support for an earliercrackdown on one of the four groups, opposed the war inIraq. But as a permanent member of the Security Council, itis likely to be an influential voice and one Washingtonwill be keen to keep onside in the debate on happeningsin Iraq in the aftermath of Saddam's capture. Many Turkic-speaking Uighurs want to establish anindependent state in the Xinjiang region, which theywould call East Turkestan. China has blamed pro-independence activists for astring of bombings and riots since the 1980s inXinjiang, which borders the former Soviet Central Asianrepublics and Pakistan and Afghanistan, as well as inother parts of the country. But Uighur and human rights activists abroad haveangrily denounced the terrorist’’ tag and accuseBeijing of using the global war on terror to legitimisea tightened clampdown and single out groups unfairly.
Some Western diplomats and scholars also doubt thereis a unified Uighur independence movement. They say mostUighurs are struggling against cultural and economicinequities and, living with heavy police and militarypresence, lack the coordination to execute sustainedviolence.