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Spacewar.com: China defends stance on terrorism after deadly raid
China said on Tuesday its stance on fighting terrorism was no different from the rest of the world, after it announced police had killed two "terrorists" in its Muslim-dominated far northwest."On the attack against terrorists, our position is the same as the international community. Our stance is firm," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao told reporters. He declined to comment further, saying only he was aware of reports in state-run media that Chinese police late last month wiped out a "terrorist" group, killing two of its members and arresting 15. The Global Times newspaper, run by the official Xinhua news agency, characterized the January 27 raid in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang region, as the biggest anti-terrorism move by police in the past year. Xinhua said the targets of last month's raid were suspected of collaborating with the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which the United Nations has designated a terrorist organisation. Hong Kong-based Sing Tao Daily reported last week that at least 18 people had been killed in last month's raid. Authorities in Xinjiang did not answer requests by AFP for further information and it was impossible to independently verify either version of events. Independent information gathering is difficult in Xinjiang, made particularly hard by China's heavy security presence in the strategically vital region, which has a Muslim-majority population and borders Central Asia. Rights groups have consistently accused Chinese authorities of repression in Xinjiang, with some saying Beijing uses the cover of a "war on terror" to brutally silence anyone who expresses opposition to, or anger with, Chinese rule. "China has the right and has the duty actually to protect itself and its citizens from terrorist acts. No doubt about it," said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher with Human Rights Watch. "The concern is whether they use this incident, which seems very isolated, as a justification for a broad denial of basic rights, as we see in Xinjiang." The operations were carried out almost exactly one year after 18 people were killed and 17 captured in an army raid on an East Turkestan Islamic Movement training camp in Xinjiang, according to Chinese authorities. East Turkestan refers to two short-lived republics established in Xinjiang between 1930 and 1949 by the Muslim Uighur minority, and the minority group continues to harbour independence ambitions. Nearly 10 million Uighurs live in Xinjiang, making up nearly half of China's officially recognized 18 million Muslims. Posted by: 3dc 2008-02-20 |
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