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| China-Japan-Koreas |
| Uighur leader challenges China's account of Tiananmen attack |
| 2013-10-31 |
| The exiled leader of China's Uighur community has called for an international investigation into an incident in which a car plowed into pedestrians in Beijing, after Chinese authorities arrested five suspected Uighurs for the attack. The SUV vehicle burst into flames after being driven into a crowd on Tiananmen Square on Monday. The three occupants and two bystanders were killed, and dozens were wounded. Police called it a terrorist attack. Rebiya Kadeer, president of the Munich-based World Uighur Congress, said the attack was tragic but was equivocal on whether Uighurs had carried it out. Kadeer warned against accepting at face value China's account of the incident. She said, "Chinese claims simply cannot be accepted as facts without an independent and international investigation of what took place in Beijing on Monday." Asked whether she believed Uighurs were responsible, Kadeer replied, "Maybe and maybe not. It is difficult to tell at the moment, given the strict control of information by the Chinese government on this tragic incident. "If the Uighurs did it, I believe they did it out of desperation because there is no channel for the Uighur people to seek redress for any kind of injustice they had suffered under Chinese rule." Kadeer added, "I don't believe there is any kind of organized extremist Islamic movement operating in East Turkestan. It is almost impossible for Uighurs to organize because of China's stringent controls and attacks." |
| Posted by:ryuge |