China links Islamic separatists to terrorism

BEIJING, China -- China has asked the international community for support against Islamic separatists within its territory.

Beijing says it now has hard evidence linking ethnic Uighur separatists of the northwestern region of Xinjiang with a series of violent attacks over the last decade.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman also says several hundred Uighur separatists were given military training in camps in Afghanistan linked to Osama Bin Laden and the al-Qaeda network.

This provides the strongest evidence yet to back up the government's stance that the Uighurs minority should be targeted in the international war against terrorism.

Non-ethnic Chinese, Uighurs have been campaigning for the independent state of East Turkestan in what is China's Xinjiang Province for decades.

Series of attacks

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Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao accused ethnic Uighur separatists of carrying out at least four attacks in China since 1992, including bus bombs that killed nine people in 1997, and three attacks overseas in the last three years.

"What these facts show is that they have taken part in regional terrorist activities," Zhu told Reuters and that "they (Uighur separatists) have become a part of the international terrorist mechanism."

Yet, Vice Premier Qian Qichen recently made a clear distinction between China's 10 million-strong Muslim population and about 1,000 militants.

This comes on the heels of U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson's visit to Beijing; she asked China not to use the war on terrorism to crack down on civil liberties and ethnic minorities.

The government blames Uighurs for sporadic attacks in China, but it has shied away from giving details, insisting the region was stable.

China had taken necessary steps to maintain stability in Xinjiang since September 11 and the situation there was stable at present, he told Reuters.

The Foreign Ministry has not given any details of the number of people arrested for terrorist or separatist activities since September 11.

Double standards

China has repeatedly urged Washington not to hold double standards in its war against terrorism.

However, some analysts say this is a way of curbing U.S. criticism of alleged human rights abuses against Uighurs who are campaigning for greater autonomy or independence in Xinjiang.

Zhu called for more dialogue on the definition of terrorism but was in "no doubt" that Uighur separatist activities were terrorist in nature.

Links with terrorist bodies

Zhu accused several Uighur organizations of having links with international terrorist groups and for the bombing of the Chinese consulate in Istanbul in 1998.

Other killings in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan were cited, as well as bombs in the capital of Xinjiang province, Urumqi and in the south.

Human rights groups, Uighurs overseas and Western experts on Xinjiang say most Uighur activists have no links with bin Laden and campaign peacefully for greater political, economic and religious freedoms.

The Foreign Ministry declined to say what practical support China wanted from the international community.