China Blames Foreign-Trained Separatists for Attacks in Xinjiang

[m.furqan08]

BEIJING —Chinese authorities on Monday accused Pakistan-trained Uighur separatists of planning and executing the first of two deadly attacks over the weekend that struck the ancient Silk Road town of Kashgar in China’s far-western Xinjiang region.

As the death toll rose to at least 18, the Kashgar city government said in a written statement that one of the surviving attackers had confessed that the group’s ringleader had gone to Pakistan for training in bomb- and gun-making by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a small Uighur group that advocates independence for Xinjiang.

“This is not a standalone incident. It is another terrorist act, plotted and planned by a small number of adamants in the current special circumstances,” the statement read.

Some experts disputed that interpretation, noting that the Kashgar attackers did not appear to employ sophisticated weapons. Both attacks were carried out with knives, not guns, which are rigidly banned in China.

Although reports of the violence remain sketchy, two small explosions apparently preceded the Saturday attack, and a third struck a restaurant during the second attack on Sunday. While foreign involvement could not be ruled out, many outside experts believe that the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which trained some members in Afghanistan in the 1990s, is no longer an effective organization.

“This is a recurring allegation by a Chinese government that is reluctant to admit that there could be any sort of homegrown groups, Uighur organizations, that are opposed to the Chinese state, because the government says all ethnic groups are a happy family,” said Nicholas Bequelin, a Xinjiang expert and researcher for Human Rights Watch in Hong Kong. “The causes of the violence are domestic, and not to be found in some kind of terrorist organization that wants to destabilize China.”

In an interview, a Kashgar city spokesman who identified herself as Ms. Chen declined to say where the attacks took place. But news reports placed one on Renmin Xilu, or West People’s Street, a main thoroughfare that is home to many Han businesses.

City officials said that the dead included 12 civilians and six attackers, and that 40 persons were injured. The state-run Xinhua news service reported that 14 civilians had died. Kashgar police offered a reward of 100,000 renminbi, or about $15,500, for information leading to the arrest of two Uighur suspects, 29- and 34-year-old Kashgar residents.

The city of about 450,000 residents and 150,000 migrants was reported to be calm on Monday. On Sunday, the central city was under a lockdown, and one Kashgar resident wrote on a microblog stated that residents appeared to be stockpiling goods bought from the few shops that were open.

In the wake of the attacks, Xinjiang’s Communist Party boss, Zhang Chunxian, pledged at an emergency party meeting to severely punish the attackers and “effectively suppress” unspecified illegal religious activities. Uighurs, who generally practice a moderate form of Islam, began observing the month-long Muslim holiday of Ramadan this week. "People in Xinjiang should stay vigilant and recognize that terrorist attackers are the common enemies of all ethnic groups," Xinhua quoted Mr. Zhang as saying.

Posts on China’s Twitter-like microblogs largely appeared to support a harsh government response to the attacks, but censors later banned messages using the word “Kashgar,” effectively closing off debate.

The Chinese government is sinking billions of renminbi into the mostly arid region, exploiting rich petroleum and mineral deposits and building an industrial base, new housing and roads and railroads. Chinese officials say both China’s Han majority and Uighurs have shared in the new prosperity development has brought to the area.

But tensions between the Uighurs and the Han have steadily risen in recent years as immigrant Han replaced Uighurs as the region’s largest ethnic group and, the Uighurs charge, grabbed the lion’s share of jobs and benefits from economic development. About six in 10 Xinjiang residents are Han.

Uighurs also have bridled at government-imposed limits on the practice of Islam and mandatory classes in Mandarin for children.

In interviews, many Uighurs say they feel that they have little voice in their own lives and that their culture is being eroded.

Xinjiang has experienced three major outbreaks of ethnic violence in recent years, including an August 2008 attack on Kashgar paramilitary officers that paralleled Saturday’s attack in several respects. In both cases, the attackers rammed crowds of people with trucks, then stabbed their victims with knives. Authorities also broadly suggested that the 2008 attack was the work of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/wo...html?ref=world