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Xinjiang Province: News & Discussions

US responsible for terrorism in Xinjiang: China
By AFP Published: July 1, 2013
URUMQI: The United States is encouraging “terrorism” in Xinjiang, Chinese state media said Monday, also claiming that separatists in the region – which has a large Uighur minority – had fought alongside Syrian rebels.

Beijing denies that unrest in the vast region bordering Central Asia – which last week left at least 35 people dead – is due to ethnic tensions between the Uighurs and China’s majority Han.
It has vowed to crack down on “terrorist groups”, ordering military exercises ahead of Friday’s anniversary of major riots in 2009 that left around 200 dead.

But rights groups for the mostly Muslim Uighurs blame unrest on economic inequality and religious repression, something that Washington has raised concerns against.

The People’s Daily, a mouthpiece for the ruling Communist Party, slammed the US government and media for what it said was its role in the violence.

“For fear of a lack of chaos in China,” it said in a commentary, the US was “conspiring to direct the calamity of terrorist activities toward China”.

“America’s double standards on the issue of countering terrorism are no different than incitement and indulgence…how is this different than those who act as accomplices to terrorism?” it said.

It asked if the 9/11 attacks and Boston marathon bombings in April meant “America’s ethnic and religious policies also have problems”, while rejecting such linkages in China.

“The violent terrorist incidents in Xinjiang are not an ethnic issue or a religious issue,” it said, calling the “massacres” of officials and bystanders “inhumane”.

According to the official Xinhua news agency, “knife-wielding mobs” attacked police stations and other sites in the town of Lukqun last Wednesday before security personnel arrived and opened fire. At least 35 people were killed.

Two days later, Xinhua said that more than a 100 “terrorists” provoked “riots” in the prefecture of Hotan, attacking people “who had gathered at local religious venues”.

Last Friday a US State Department spokesman said it was “deeply concerned about the ongoing reports of discrimination against and restrictions on Uighurs in China”.

He said the US urged a “transparent investigation” but did not want to “draw broader conclusions” about the incidents.

The state-run Global Times criticised Western media and public opinion on Monday for misrepresenting the violence as ethnic conflict, referring to it instead as “violent terrorism fuelled by the West”.

“Western public opinion is fooling these ignorant extremists through cheap support,” the paper said in an editorial.

This “indulges the views of these violent terrorists, who are in fact a small, isolated group”, it said.

In a separate article only available in Chinese, the paper accused members of the “East Turkestan” movement of joining “terrorist groups” in Syria to fight the government of Bashar al-Assad before returning to Xinjiang to plot attacks.

It cited the case of a man in his 20s recruited by an “education and mutual aid association” acting as a terrorist training front.

After being sent to Syria, the recruit was ordered back to Xinjiang to “raise” the level of the struggle there, where he was caught.

The Uyghur World Congress hit back at what it called China’s “distorting accusations”.

“Uighurs live in an outdoor prison,” it said in an emailed statement, adding that their “resistance had nothing to do with terrorism”.

On Saturday, large sections of the Xinjiang capital Urumqi were shut down as military vehicles took to the streets with at least 1000 personnel from the People’s Armed Police, part of China’s armed forces responsible for law enforcement and internal security during peacetime.

Beijing’s assertive presence on the ground comes ahead of the sensitive anniversary of riots between Uighurs and China’s ethnic majority Han four years ago.

The Muslim fasting month of Ramadan is also expected to begin next week.
In recent decades many Han Chinese have relocated to Xinjiang, which is rich in coal and gas, provoking friction.

The two communities tend to live in separate neighbourhoods in Urumqi, and a greater security presence could be seen in the Uighur area on Monday.

Paramilitary forces stood in clusters every 100 metres or so around the grand bazaar, and police vehicles drove by occasionally.

Beijing denies repressing China’s ethnic minorities, who make up less than 10 percent of the national population and enjoy some preferential policies.
 
I don't want to make any speculation until getting Chinese official statements, wrongfully accused other is also a crime. I believe China is capable to deal with the source of problem.
 
I don't want to make any speculation until getting Chinese official statements, wrongfully accused other is also a crime. I believe China is capable to deal with the source of problem.
Read this, official GlobalTimes.cn news: Xinjiang terrorists finding training, support in Syria, Turkey

From a foreign student studying in Istanbul to a soldier receiving training in Syria's Aleppo, to a terrorist plotting attacks in China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, 23-year-old Memeti Aili said he felt like his dream was turned into a nightmare.

Memeti Aili was recently caught by the police when returning to Xinjiang to complete his mission to "carry out violent attack and improve fighting skills" assigned by the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM). ETIM is a terrorist group that aims to create an Islamist state in Xinjiang, which works alongside the East Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association (ETESA), an Istanbul-based exile group.

"After hearing their lectures, all I could think about was jihad and I totally abandoned my studies and my family," he told the police. "But thinking back, it was like a nightmare."

Unwelcome to battle

In 2011, after graduating from university in Urumqi, Memeti Aili went to study in Turkey like many other Muslim Ugyhur students. Soon after settling down in Istanbul, someone from the ETESA approached and offered him "help."

A year later, after studying the lessons they provided, Memeti Aili was informed by ETESA and ETIM that he had been selected to travel to Syria to join the fighting.

Together with other young people, Memeti Aili travelled to Aleppo, the largest city located in northwestern Syria and arranged to join the rebels. The percentage of foreign fighters in Syria has reached up to 80 percent from 29 countries such as Libya, Turkey, Lebanon and Yemen, according to Omran Zoubi, Minister of Information in the Assad government.

Before arriving in Syria, Memeti Aili said he had never touched a gun.

Together these young people received seven days of training in the suburbs of Aleppo where there was no water or electricity supply, and food was scarce.

"We had to change sites four times a day in fear of possible bombings from the Syrian army, therefore we didn't learn that much during that week," he recalled.

During the training, he was shown how to shoot a gun and make bombs. But not all of them had the chance to practice and many just watched and hoped that something would sink in.

After this rushed training, Memeti Aili was assigned to join the Free Syrian Army (FSA), an armed opposition structure operating in Syria.
 
^..well ask ourself this question before getting upset with this terrorist issue...is China gonna turn blind-eyes? if the answer is yes, then it's useless to jump up and down like monkey, if the answer is no, then let the gorvernment do with more professional way...we can curse, we can bash we can basphem...it won't help our cause.
 
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