China mobilizes anti-terror units

Troops have been ordered to raise their rapid response capability to deal with terrorist threats

By Willy Wo-Lap Lam
CNN Senior China Analyst

HONG KONG, China (CNN) -- Anti-terrorist units in China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) have started a series of maneuvers in areas close to concentrations of ethnic minorities.

Meanwhile the paramilitary People's Armed Police (PAP) has beefed up patrols in the Central Asian Xinjiang Autonomous Region, which is home to the Uighur separatist movement.

The official China News Service (CNS) reported on Saturday that crack anti-terrorist forces of the Chengdu Military Region, identified as the Leopard Unit, had started exercises in western Sichuan Province.

The area adjoins the Tibet Autonomous Region, where Beijing has boosted its anti-separatist campaign since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

CNS said anti-terrorist exercises, including rescue operations, were part of the new training regimen for the PLA.

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It added that raising the rapid response ability against terrorists would be a "major task for the PLA's special units in the foreseeable future."

Meanwhile, the official Legal Daily reported that the Xinjiang division of the PAP had increased patrols in the restive region.

The daily said several hundred PAP patrol units were on duty 24 hours particularly in Urumqi and other big cities.

Strike fear

Their task was to "dissolve contradictions, suppress disputes, and strike fear among criminals" the paper said.

The PAP has also played a key role in the "Strike hard" campaign against terrorists, separatists and hard-core criminals, which was launched soon after September 11.

The daily added that in the past 10 years, PAP units in Xinjiang had succeeded in suppressing several hundred cases of riots as well as other incidents involving firearms.

Wen Wei Po, Hong Kong's China-run daily, reported Friday that in parts of Xinjiang, separatists as well as terrorists were given until the end of February to surrender themselves to the authorities.

It quoted announcements issued by law-enforcement and judicial departments in Xinjiang as saying that criminals and reactionary elements who had surrendered might be given clemency if they had shown penitence or performed "meritorious services to atone for their crimes."