TERRORISM IN XINJIANG
Militants fighting for a free “East Turkestan” have been labeled as terrorists and been blamed for setting off explosives, training terrorists, smuggling arms and stirring up riots. Although the government publicly has dismissed Islamic extremist as "disgruntled farmers with fertilizer bombs” it takes their threat quite seriously.
Beijing blames outside agitators and foreign-based terrorist groups for the unrest, specifically those from the East Turkistan Islamic Movement who it says have trained in militant camps in Pakistan. Yet Beijing has provided no direct evidence, and analysts say they suspect its claims are driven more by ideology than proof. Uighur activists say harsh crackdowns only lead to greater anger among young Uighurs who already feel culturally and economically sidelined by waves of Han migration to the region.
September 11th and the war on terrorism, gave China an opportunity to cast a localized Uighur separatist movement as an international terrorist threat. China described itself as a “victim of international terrorism,” blamed unrest in Xinjiang on Osama bin Laden and asked the United States to include ETIM on its lists of terrorist organizations. At first Washington refused but when it sought support for its activitie sin Afghanistan and the invasion of Iraq it changed its position and included the group on the terrorist list.
James Miflor, a professor at Georgetown and expert on Xinjiang, told National Geographic that many officials believe Xinjiang faces a serious terrorist threat because that “is what they are constantly told.”
In one speech Osama bin Laden called Chinese “pagan Buddhists.” It is hard to gage the support of Al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden because the Chinese Muslims are so afraid to speak their minds. But some have expressed sympathy for the Taliban and said there is not solid proof to link Osama bin Laden with September 11th.
See Separate Article: TERRORIST ATTACKS IN XINJIANG
Websites and Resources
Good Websites and Sources: Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Blog with stuff on Xinjiang china.notspecial.org ; About Xinjiang (Chinese government site) aboutxinjiang. ; History and Development of Xinjiang (Chinese government site) news.xinhuanet.com ; Uighurs and Xinjiang Council on Foreign Relations ; Muslims in China: Islam in China islaminchina.wordpress.com ; Claude Pickens Collection harvard.edu/libraries ; Islam Awareness islamawareness.net ; Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Asia Times atimes.com ; Xinjiang History Wikipedia article Wikipedia ; Great Game Info sras.org ; Great Game in Afghanistan atimes.com . Book on the Great Game: The Dust of Empire: The Race for Mastery in the Asian Heartland by Karl E. Meyer (Century Foundation/Public Affairs, 2003). Separatism and Human Rights: Wikipedia article on Terrorism in China Wikipedia ; All Quiet on the Western Front? silkroadstudies.org Human Rights in Xinjiang Human Rights Watch article hrw.org ; Human Rights in Xinjiang Human Rights Watch article hrw.org ; Human Rights in Xinjiang Human Rights Watch article hrw.org ; Uyghur Human Rights Groups: U.S.-based Taklamakan Uighur Human Rights Association; German-based East Turkestan Information Center; Germany-based World Uyghur Congress; and Rebiya Kadeer’s Uyghur American Association: World Uyghur Congress uyghurcongress.org ; Uyghur American Association uyghuramerican.org ; Uyghur Human Rights Project uhrp.org
Uighur and Xinjiang Experts: Dru Gladney of Pomona College; Nicolas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch; and James Miflor, a professor at Georgetown University. Travel Warnings U.S. State Department Advisories: Travel.State.gov British travel warnings: fco.gov.uk . Australian travel warnings: dfat.gov.au/travel . Travel Advise Web Sites : Lonely Planet Lonely Planet Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree Thorn Tree
Links in this Website: XINJIANG Factsanddetails.com/China ; XINJIANG EARLY HISTORY Factsanddetails.com/China ; XINJIANG LATER HISTORY Factsanddetails.com/China ; XINJIANG AND CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; XINJIANG SEPARATISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS Factsanddetails.com/China ; TERRORISM IN XINJIANG Factsanddetails.com/China ; Factsanddetails.com/China ; XINJIANG RIOTS IN 2009 Factsanddetails.com/China ; UIGHURS Factsanddetails.com/China ; HORSEMEN AND SMALL MINORITIES IN XINJIANG Factsanddetails.com/China ; XINJIANG, URUMQI Factsanddetails.com/China ; XINJIANG. KASHGAR Factsanddetails.com/China ; XINJIANG KARAKORUM HIGHWAY Factsanddetails.com/China ; RIOTS AND DEMONSTRATIONS IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; POLICE IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; DISSIDENTS, POLITICAL ACTIVISTS AND POLITICAL PRISONERS IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China ; TERRORISM AND BOMBINGS IN CHINA Factsanddetails.com/China
PLACES IN XINJIANG : Xinjiang Tourism Administration, 16 South Hetan Rd, 830002 Urumqi, Xinjiang China, tel. (0)- 991-282-7912, fax: (0)- 991-282-4449. Web Sites : Wikipedia Wikipedia Government site Xinjiang.gov ; Photos and Qanats : Synaptic Synaptic Wikipedia article on qanats Wikipedia ; Turpan : Turpan Tourism Division, 41 Qingnian Rd, 838000 Turpan. Xinjiang China, tel. (0)- 995-523-706, fax: (0)- 995-522-768 ; Urumqi : Urumqi Tourism Bureau, 32 Guangming Rd, 830002 Urumqi, Xinjiang China, tel. (0)-991-283-2212, fax: (0)- 991-281-9357 Web Sites: Travel China Guide Travel China Guide ; China Map Guide China Map Guide ; Getting There Sites : Urumqi is accessible by air and bus and lies at the end on the main east-west train line from Beijing. It is connected to Kashgar and other Xinjiang cities to southwest by a new train that began operating in the early 2000s.Travel China Guide (click transportation) Travel China Guide Tian Shan : Wikipedia Wikipedia ; Links in this Website: XINJIANG, URUMQI Factsanddetails.com/China
Kashgar Travel China Guide Travel China Guide ; Lonely Planet Lonely Planet ; China Vista China Vista ; Getting There: Kashgar is accessible by air and bus and connected to Urumqi and the rest of China by a new train that began operating in 2004. There are two daily trains between Kasghar and Urumqi that cover the 1,598 kilometer distance in about 24 hours, There are also flights on Xinjiang Airlines 757s every evening. Website: CNINFO.net
Travel China Guide (click transportation) Travel China Guide Lonely Planet (click Getting There) Lonely Planet ; Links in this Website: XINJIANG. KASHGAR Factsanddetails.com/China ; XINJIANG KARAKORUM HIGHWAY Factsanddetails.com/China
Terrorist Groups in Xinjiang
Many scholars think that there is no organized Islamic terrorist group in Xinjiang and the various bombings and attacks have been local in nature and carried out by individuals or small groups that had some local grievance. At most there are several small groups with similar goals. If there is a large organized group it appears to lack the personnel and weaponry to carry out a sophisticated attack. James Millward of Georgetown University told the Washington Post, “The degree of organization of Uighur groups or East Turkestan separatist groups is a big question among many experts outside of China.”
Beijing has said there are more than 50 “terrorist” groups fighting for independence in Xinjiang and claims that 1,000 members of 10 different groups have undergone training at camps in Afghanistan, with some returning to Xinjiang and elsewhere in China and set up secret cells.
Millward and many Western analysts say the problem in Xinjiang is not a religious problem but a civil rights problems that has to do with Uighurs feeling discriminated against and not getting job opportunities.
The Chinese view the problem differently. Yu Jianrong of the Institute of Rural Development in the Chinese Academy of Sciences told the Washington Post: “The main and core issue is separatism, although it combines some farmer and land problems...We cannot regard this purely as citizens trying to protect their rights.”
Whenever there is an attack or an arrest the Chinese government says that the attackers or the people arrested are members of the ETIM (See Below) or are Uighur separatist but offer no evidence to back up their claims other than those involved were Uighurs.
Al- Qaida, Xinjiang and China
Beijing does have justifiable concerns. Xinjiang borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, the home of many Muslim extremist and members for Al-Qaida and the Taliban. Many think the interests of Beijing would be better served if the government focused crackdowns and their paramilitary activity on Pakistan-based militant groups that slip across the border into Xinjiang and talk the more moderate a Uighur groups.
American sources believe that maybe 600 or 700 Uighurs passed through the Al-Qaeda Afghanistan camps and/or fought with the Taliban. Those that were captured were young and in their 20s and 30s described as very naive. They mostly didn’t want have anything to do with Al-Qaeda and were generally supportive of the United States because it pressured China.
After the riots in Urumqi in July 2009, an Algeria-based Al-Qaida arm—Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb— said it would avenge the deaths if Muslims in Urumqi by targeting Chinese working in North Africa. It was the first time that Al-Qaida directly threatened China or its interests.
In October 2009, Al-Qaida leader Abu Yahia al-Libi called on Uighurs to rise up and launch a jihad against Beijing
East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM)
China has frequently blamed a group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM)for violence in Xinjiang. ETIMhas been placed in the United States’s list of terrorist organizations. Many believe the group was singled out by the Bush administration to curry favor with Beijing for its fight on terrorism and win support from China on the war in Iraq.
ETIM’s aim is to establish an Islamic state in Xinjiang and said it is committing to using violence because peaceful methods have not produced any results. The group is small and obscure. Most Uighurs have never heard of it. Washington has accused it of planning to attack Western embassies in Kyrgyzstan. Beijing says it has ties with Al Qaeda.
Little is known about ETIM. Its leader abroad is Hasan Mahsum. Mahsum admits some members received training in Al-Qaida camps but they are believed to have been more active in the struggle involving the Taliban in Afghanistan than in terrorism in China. Those that believe ETIM exists and is active think it has about 40 member based in the tribal areas of Pakistan, where Al-Qaida members and Taliban are have sough refuge. Some think it never existed.Dru Gladney of Pomona College told the New York Times he thinks that ETIM may have as few as 10 members,
ETIM
The leader of ETIM, Hasan Mahsum, denied his group had ties with Al-Qaida but he was killed in 2003 by the Pakistani army in what the Pakistanis described as a raid on an Al-Qaida hideout.
After the leader of ETIM was killed in 2003, members organized into similar groups, including the Turkestan Islamic Party and received training from Al-Qaida in Pakistan’s tribal areas.
ETIM has very little support among ordinary Uighurs, less than 1 percent by some estimates, The Chinese government has to be careful not to crack down on Uighurs too hard out f fear of radicalizing them.
Beijing wants to the ETIM, the Istanbul-bases Eastern Turkestan Liberation Organization; The World Uighur Youth Congress; and the East Turkestan Information Center to be recognized aborad as “terrorist organizations” and shut down,
Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP)
Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) is regarded as an offshoot of ETIM. After the Urumqi riots in 2009 it urged Muslims to attack Chinese interests both at home and abroad in retaliation for the “barbaric massacre” and “genocide” of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. It also threatened attacks during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Zhao Guojun of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences told the New York Times the Turkistan Islamic Party is believed to have fewer than 100 members, most of them Uighur. It was formed in 2003 in alliance with the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Mr. Zhao said. The group’s former leader, Abdul Haq al-Turkistani, became a member of Al Qaeda’s executive council in 2005, according to the United States Treasury Department, which designated him a global terrorist in 2009. Mr. Turkistani was reported to have died last year in a Predator drone strike in the Taliban-controlled North Waziristan region of Pakistan.
After the riots in Urumqi in July 2009, Seyfullah, the military leader of TIP urged Muslims to attack Chinese interests both at home and abroad in retaliation for the “barbaric massacre” and “genocide” of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang. “Know that this Muslim people have men who will take revenge for them,” Seyfullah said in a video message, “Soon, the horsemen of Allah will attack you, Allah Willing, So lie in wait; indeed, we lie in wait with you.” The group had previously announced it would stage attacks during the 2008 Olympics.
Before the Olympics the TIP released a video with a burning Olympic logo and a warning to Muslims not to attend the games, presumably to prevent them from being caught up in violence the group planned. The group has also claimed involvement in other violence in China, including a 2008 explosion on a Shanghai bus that killed three people and attacks in the coastal cities of Wenzhou and Guangzhou. The Chinese government calls those claims unverified.
According to InterCenter, a private group that monitors militant and terrorist groups on the Internet, the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) is the same group as the ETIM. As proof it said it found a picture of ETIM’s supposed founder Hasan Mahsum on the TIP website with a TIP acronym in the photo. IntelCenter told the New York Times that the name ETIM has been used by China, the United Nations and other organizations but was never used by the group itself. It originally called itself the East Turkestan Islamic Party (ETIP) but after 2000 removed the “East” from its name.
In January 2010, TIP issued a statement claiming that 15 of its members were killed in an American airstrike inside Afghanistan.
Turkistan Islamic Party Takes Credit for 2011 Kashgar and Hotan Attacks
The Turkistan Islamic Party has claimed responsibility in an online video for recent violent attacks that killed dozens in China’s western Xinjiang region, according to an American organization that tracks militant activity. The American organization, the SITE Intelligence, posted the video, by the Turkistan Islamic Party, on its Web site, reporting that it had been issued in late August. In the video, according to SITE, the group’s leader, Abdul Shakoor Damla, claimed that attacks in July in Hotan and Kashgar, two southern Xinjiang cities, were acts of revenge for the Chinese government’s repression of the region’s ethnic Uighur population. [Source: Michael Wines, New York Times September 8, 2011]
Michael Wines wrote in the New York Times, “The Turkistan Islamic Party has previously made similar claims that remain unverified. Its highest-profile threat, to disrupt the 2008 Beijing Olympics with chemical, biological or conventional weapons, was never carried out. Some terrorism experts remain concerned about the group’s threats, and its members have been linked to other Islamic militants, including Al Qaeda. But one Chinese analyst,Zhao Guojun of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences, was cautious. While the group could have carried out the attacks, Mr. Zhao said the claim was probably made to blow a “trumpet for themselves.” “It’s a way to increase their influence,” he said.
The latest video shows a Uighur man identified as Memeti Tiliwaldi at what is said to be a terrorist training camp, probably somewhere in Afghanistan or in Pakistan’s lawless region near the border with China. Chinese police officials reported in early August that they had shot and killed Mr. Tiliwaldi, 29, after he was identified as one of those who staged a series of attacks in Kashgar on July 30 and 31, which left at least 18 people dead.
While the attacks in Hotan and Kashgar almost certainly were planned in advance, some analysts have noted that they bore few of the hallmarks of the actions of a sophisticated terrorist group. For the most part, the attackers’ weapons were knives and automobiles that they drove into crowds of bystanders. The bombs detonated in the Kashgar attacks also appeared to be comparatively primitive.
Hizb ut-Tahrir
Hizb-ut-Tahrir (or ILP, Islamic Liberation Party) is believed to be active in Xinjiang. It is the most widespread radical Islamic group in Central Asia. Believed to have thousands of followers, it wants to create utopian Muslim society called a caliphate that it hopes will take root in Central Asia and then spread throughout the Middle East and North Africa too.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir is believed to have around 15,000 to 20,000 members in Central Asia. Founded in the Middle East in 1952 as a Leninist, anti-royalist revolutionary party , it made inroads into Central Asia after the after the collapse of the Soviet Union perhaps because it was Islam with a socialist aspect. Among its elements are creating utopian communities and establishing strict Islamic law that requires segregation between men and women. It also wants a return to the gold standard and calls for jihad against Israel and non-believers even though it insists it is non-violent.
Many Western analysts accept Hizb-ut-Tahrir’s claim that is non-violent. The group claims it can establish a Islamic state in three stages: 1) educates Muslims about its ideology; 2) spread these views into the government; and 3) topple secular regimes from the inside.
Hizb-ut-Tahrir s believed to be behind attacks in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. It is outlawed in Uzbekistan and has been accused by the Uzbekistan government of inspiring terrorist attacks. It operates legally in Britain but is banned in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan but operated fairly open in the Osh area of Kyrgyzstan. . Authorities in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have tried to suppress it.
Hizb ut-Tahrir in China
In China and Xinjiang Hizb-ut-Tahrir is an illegal religious organization. Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights watch told Reuters, “The organization is extremely resilient and its influence, although limited to southern Xinjiang, seems to be growing...The prison authorities are also worried about the influence of Hizbut followers on other inmates.
Heyrat Niyaz, an Uyghur journalist and blogger, told Hong Kong newsweekly Yazhou Zhoukan: “Hizb-ut-Tahrir al-Islami... has spread extremely quickly in southern Xinjiang. I've studied this group, which was founded by an Afghan. When the Afghan died, a Pakistani doctor among his followers carried out a reorganization and recruitment drive. Whether in China, Afghanistan, or Pakistan, the ILP is an underground movement. In 1997, when the ILP had just begun to appear in Xinjiang, there were probably only several hundred members. According to statistics made public last year by the relevant agencies, the organization may now have close to 10,000 members in Xinjiang.”
“This organization is extremely disciplined and its composition rather unusual,” Heyrat Niyaz said. “It attracts young men around the age of 20, mostly from rural areas. In fact, this organization is extremely backwards, so that even among Uyghurs without any basic social underpinning, those with even a bit of education don't have any interest [in the ILP]. The influence of groups like this that have infiltrated from abroad is ultimately quite small, because they bring nothing to the table. A serious attack from the organs of state power could totally wipe them out. There's no need for anti-terrorism measures throughout society in Xinjiang.”
In 2001, Beijing claimed it arrested two Islamic extremist members of Hizb-ut-Tahrir in Urumqi and Hotan. Some think that Hizb ut-Tahrir was responsible for organizing the protests in Khotan in 2008.
The Chinese government regards Hizb ut-Tahrir as a threat and calls it a terrorist group. Police have spray painted slogans on walls that warn against having anything to do with the group. Slogans written in both China and the Uighur language displayed in Kashgar read: “Strike hard against Hizb ut-Tahrir” and “Hizb ut-Tahrir is a violent, terrorist organization.” A posting in a Kashgar government website reads: “Be very clear about Hizb ut-Tahrir’s reactionary nature. Be very clear about its pervasive and actual threat to Xinjiang and Kashgar.”
Hizb ut-Tahrir insists that its activities in China are non-violent and that the government plays up its threat so it can crack down not only Hizb ut-Tahrir but Muslims in general.
Arrests, Executions and Fighting Terrorism in Xinjiang
Xinjiang-based officials, PAP and police units have had a track record of faulty intelligence and bungled operations.
By some estimates 1,000 people have been killed and 10,000 have arrested in crackdowns on suspected separatists and terrorists. According to exiled separatists in Kazakstan, 57,000 suspected pro-independence supporters, including academics and clerics, were arrest in 1996.
Accused terrorists are often executed. In 1997, 16 people were executed in Xinjiang for Muslim unrest. An additional 20 people wee executed in 1996 for the rolls in Yining riots and Urumqi bombings. According to Amnesty International, Xinjiang is only place where executions are carried out for political crimes. One Amnesty International listed 210 death sentences and 190 executions between 1997 and 2000. Most were Uighurs
The Chinese have arrested thousands of Uighurs and confiscated weapons and explosives. Xinjiang police claimed in 1996 that they arrested 2,773 suspected terrorists and seized 6,000 pounds of explosives and confiscated 31,000 rounds of ammunition.
In June 2005, 10 Uighur activists were arrested and charged with plotting independence and separatism
In January 2007, security forces raided an alleged terrorist “training camp” in Akto in a mountainous area of Xinjiang Province near the Pakistan border, claiming that 18 militants were killed and 17 were arrested. Police said they found a cache of grenades, guns and handmade explosives, evidence of ties with international terrorists, and said the camp was run by ETIM. Human rights groups have doubts about the claims.
Beijing’s crackdown it seems have largely been successful. The bombings, protests and unrest that occurred in the 1990s now seem like events in the distant past. But some say resentment has only been driven underground. Dru Gladney, an expert of western China at Pomona Collage, told the Los Angeles Times, “They put out the fire. But the embers are smoldering. And unless they address hearts and minds, it will flare again.” One Uighur man in Khotan told Reuters, “Even for small things you hear about people being taken away. So any kind of bigger incident I don’t think could happen here.”
In November 2007, six Uighurs tied to Hizb ut-Tahrir were given prison sentences from death to life in prison on charges of “splittism and organizing and leading terrorist groups.” One of the men that was found guilty of “carrying out extremist religious activities and promoting ‘jihad,’” was accused of establishing a terrorist training base and preparing to set up an Islamic caliphate.
Crackdowns in Xinjiang Around the Time of the 2008 Beijing Olympics
After the Kashgar attack Uyghur activist Rebiya Kadder said from Washington, “We condemn all acts of violence. The Uyghur people don’t support acts that engender bloodshed.”
As of July 2008, Xinjiang official said they had arrested 82 people and broke up five terrorist cells planing attacks on the Olympics in 2008. In one raid, the Chinese government said, police stormed an apartment in Urumqi, where 15 Uighurs rushed out from hiding, wielding knives and shouting “sacrifice for Allah.” Two members of the group were hospitalized and eight others were detained.
In July 2008, two Uighurs identified as members of the ETIM were executed. Fifteen others linked withe the groups were given harsh sentences: two were given suspended death sentences; the others received prison sentences of 10 years to life. The two executed men had been captured in what Beijing said was a terrorist training camp. Also in July, police raided an apartment in Urumqi and shot dead five men the government said were planning a “jihad” against the region’s ethnic Han population.
In August 2008, two days after the Yamanya attack, police officers shot dead six suspects and arrested three during a search near the Silk Road oasis town of Kashgar, also in western Xinjiang, according to a report on Saturday by Xinhua, the official state news agency. The nine were linked to Yamanya attack and the one on Aug. 12.
In October 2008, the Chinese government issued a terrorist wanted list with eight “terrorists” said to be members of the ETIM and wanted in connection with violence in Xinjiang.
A report published In January 2009 in an official newspaper said that more than 1,100 people had been indicted in Xinjiang on suspicion of endangering state security in the first 11 months of 2008. That is an extraordinarily large number of indictments on that charge, which covers inciting separatism and can carry the death penalty. [Source: Edward Wong, New York Times, January 5, 2009]
The report said that prosecutors’ departments in Xinjiang, approved 1,295 arrests of individuals and indicted 1,154. In total, 204 cases were opened. In 2007, the number of people arrested across all of China on suspicion of endangering state security was 742, according to government statistics. Prosecutors indicted 619 of them. Of those total numbers, about half were from Xinjiang. Nicholas of Human Rights Watch said the numbers suggested a shift in law enforcement rather than an increase in attempted crimes. Nobody doubts there are individuals and groups that are advocating the use of antistate violence, although these people seem to be very low in number and don’t constitute major threats to China’s state security, he added. {Ibid}
In June 2009, the Chinese government said that it had uncovered seven “terrorist cells” in Kashgar in the first five months of 2009. A local party official said that extremists from neighboring countries were able to “remote control” locals via the Internet.
Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the German-based World Uyghur Congress, said high-pressure tactics and "systematic persecution" of attempts to assert a Uighur identity would only encourage radicalism. "China is ducking responsibility for the turmoil its own policies have created," Raxit said.
The Washington Post reported that after the attacks before the Olympics in 2008 the local government inYengishahar county in Xinjiang bused several thousand students and office workers into a public square and lined them up in front of a vocational school to watch the execution of three prisoners, who been convicted on terrorist charges in connections with a plot by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement to disrupt the Olympics.
In December 2008, a Xinjiang court sentenced two men to death for the Kashgar attack in August that killed 17 paramilitary officers. The Intermediate People’s Court of Kashgar sentenced the men, a taxi driver and a vegetable vendor, for intentional homicide and illegally producing guns, ammunition and explosives, Xinhua reported. The court determined that the men, were trying to sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games. [Source: Edward Wong, New York Times, December, 17 2008]
The Xinhua report of the trial did not give any details on what kind of evidence was reviewed by the court in Kashgar during the trial of the two men. It also did not mention the East Turkestan Islamic Movement. The day after the assault, the party secretary of Kashgar, Shi Dagang, told reporters that it appeared that the two men were members of that group. “ [Ibid]
Terrorism, Xinjiang and the United States
Before September 11th and the war in Iraq, many Chinese Muslims regarded the United States as a friend and a supporter of their fight for more freedom and autonomy. Many listened to Uighur-language broadcast on U.S.-supported Radio Free Asia. These same Chinese Muslims have traditionally been wary of Muslim extremists and have no affection for Al Qaeda or Osama bin Laden.
Concerned about the rise of Islamic extremism in it own backyard, China has supported the United States's war on terrorism. At the same time the actions of the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan have caused many to view the United States as bullies that have unfairly singled out Muslims.
The United States’s condemnation of Xinjiang-based Islamic groups has been a propaganda coup for Beijing. After September 11th, the Chinese government stepped up its crackdown on suspected separatists in Xinjiang, targeting groups with connection to terrorists and groups that didn’t have any links. According to Amnesty International, 3000 people were detained in the four months following September 11th. Some were arrested for showing any kind of dissatisfaction with the Chinese government. A few were executed.
In his book The Tree That Bleeds: a Uyghur Town on the Edge Nick Holdstock wrote that affter the September 11, 2001, attacks occurred in the United States the president of the college where Holdstock worked told him and two other foreign teachers that "a small group of separatists" were out to cause trouble, that there were a few Taliban around, and that he and his colleagues were prime targets for kidnapping. The 9/11 attacks also encouraged conspiracy theories among the Uyghur, and Holdstock quotes one Uyghur friend who tells him the Chinese could have been to blame, which would mean that "The Americans will fight the Chinese. They will win and then we will be free."
Chinese Muslims at Guantanamo
A total of 23 Uighurs were detained at Guantanamo. They ended up in American hands after being captured in Afghanistan and Pakistan in 2001 and 2002. One said he was a hat maker, another a shoe repairman. Another said he was typist of the Uighur language. Some of their stories raised suspicions and were inconsistent with the stories of others. There were some hints they may have been involved in terrorist activities but no hard evidence against them was ever presented. The Uighurs were shackled to the floor even though there were serious doubts as whether the actually done anything wrong.
Five Uighurs were released from Guantanamo Bay in May 2006 after three years and sent to Albania, the only country that would accept them. As of July 2008 they were living in a tidy house in a refugee camp outside the Albanian capital of Tirana used mainly by refugees from war-torn eastern European countries like Kosovo. The Uighurs were unable to get work and unable to reunite with their families.
During the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and 2002, the five Uighurs were scooped up by bounty hunters who sold the for $5,000 each to U.S. forces. They deny involvement with the Taliban or Al-Qaida and say there were in Afghanistan to escape oppression and to make their way to a third country and seek a better life. After a couple years at Guantanamo their “enemy combatant” status was taken away, making them available for release. China regards them as terrorists.
As of 2008, seventeen other Uighurs remain in Guantanamo. Their stories are similar to those of the five that were released. Abu Bakker Qassim and A’Del Abdu ak-Hakim, for example, were captured in Pakistan as they fled a Taliban training camp in Afghanistan in 2001. The two men were trained to carry activities against China but said they had no quarrel with the United States. Ten of the Uighurs at Guantanamo were deemed low risk detainees whose beef was with the Chinese Communists not the United States.In October 2008, a U.S. judge ruled that the 17 Chinese Muslims be released immediately and declared the evidence against them was dubious, and said its source may have been the Chinese government.
In September 2009, three Uighurs held at Guantanamo agreed to be released to the tiny Pacific island of Palau. A total of 14 were originally schedule to go the island nations. In June four other Uighurs from Guantanamo were transferred to Bermuda.
Palau agreed to take 12 of the 13 Guantanamo-imprisoned Uighur, In November 2009, six Uighurs detained at Guantanamo and still wanted by Beijing arrived in Palau. Two others said they would go.
In October 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court said it would hear the cases of Guantanamo-imprisoned Uighurs who wanted to be released in the United States.
Beijing has demanded the return of the Chinese Muslims but the United States has refused to send them to China The Muslims have said they want to be released in the United States and fear they will be tortured or executed if they are sent to China.
Source: Thomas B. Allen, National Geographic, March 1996
Image Sources: Mongabey
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Times of London, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Time, Newsweek, Reuters, AP, Lonely Planet Guides, Compton’s Encyclopedia and various books and other publications.
© 2008 Jeffrey Hays
Last updated October 2011