香港消息：世界维吾尔代表大会否认日前被新疆警方打死的五名维族人是恐怖组织成员，称这些人当时只是在一起商讨民主自由的问题。
中 国新疆乌鲁木齐市警方星期三宣布在一次行动中击毙了5人、打伤两人并拘捕8人，并称这15人都是“圣战培训班”恐怖组织的成员。星期四，世界维吾尔代表大 会发言人迪里夏提表示，上述15名维族人星期二聚集在一处民宅正讨论民主自由的问题，公安包围了住宅并向屋内投掷催泪弹及开枪射击。屋内的人被激怒，有人 持刀冲出、捅伤一名公安。迪里夏提说，这些人并非当局指控的“圣战培训班”组织成员，而不过是对当局不满的维族人；他们在一起讨论问题，没有一人身带凶 器。他还说，即使是抵制奥运也不等同于破坏奥运。至于公安称在屋内缴获了一批刀具，迪里夏提说，佩带刀具是维族人的传统习俗，而且缴获的部分刀具是厨房用 具。他呼吁联合国人权委员会介入调查这一案件。
Friday, July 11, 2008
Uyghur Mosque Demolished
An exile group and local officials say authorities in China's restive northwest have demolished a mosque.
HONG KONG—Chinese authorities have demolished a Uyghur mosque in remote and restive Xinjiang amid mounting tension over security ahead of the Beijing Olympics, according to a Uyghur exile group and local officials.
“The mosque was illegal in the first place,” a Uyghur government official said by telephone. Asked for details, he replied, “It’s difficult to talk about it. It falls under classified information. I cannot give you any detailed information.”
A village elder who asked not to be named said village youths had been gathering for Friday prayers at the mosque in secret, angering local officials.
“They reject these prayers at government-registered mosques,” the elder said.
The mosque was built in 1999, without a permit, 80 kms from the Upper Kumtagh village in Kalpin [in Chinese, Keping] county, he said, adding, “The mosque was illegal.”
Local authorities recently learned of the secret gatherings, he said, after “two members of the local youth community were arrested when they went to inner China to learn kung fu, and they talked about the Friday prayers.”
According to exiled World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilxat Raxit, the mosque was targeted because it resisted pressure to publicize the Beijing Olympics.
The county government Web site said the mosque had been demolished because it was illegally built and has been conducting illegal religious activities. It also said those who violate religious laws and regulations will face punishment.
Resistance to curbs
“China is forcing mosques in East Turkestan to publicize the Beijing Olympics to get the Uyghur people to support the Games [but] this has been resisted by the Uyghurs,” Raxit said in a statement distributed by e-mail.
Raxit said the mosque, which had been renovated in 1998, was accused of illegally renovating the structure, carrying out illegal religious activities and illegally storing copies of the Muslim holy book the Koran.
Education campaign
The Web site also said local authorities have mobilized people from all walks of life to study Communist Party policy on ethnic minorities in a bid to curb the infiltration by separatists and terrorists.
This education campaign, the Uyghur official said, “has nothing to do with the Beijing Olympics. We are in a remote area and the demolition of the mosque has nothing to do with the Olympics.”
A primary school official in Kalpin county said Monday that the local education bureau had instructed every school to make and distribute Olympic-related pictures and artworks.
Olympic torch
The Olympic torch relay passed through Xinjiang last week under tight security.
Residents were told to remain indoors with few exceptions and gatherings were banned. Foreign media were under tight controls, and large-scale traffic restrictions were also in place during the torch rally there.
Beijing has said it fears Muslim separatists may be planning “terrorist activities” around the Olympics, vowing to tighten security in the region, where anti-Beijing sentiment is rife.
Six decades of tension
Both Tibetans and Uyghurs have chafed under Beijing’s rule for the last six decades, and Chinese authorities have faced persistent accusations of repression and abuse.
China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” The ETIM has denied that charge.
HONG KONG—Chinese authorities have demolished a Uyghur mosque in remote and restive Xinjiang amid mounting tension over security ahead of the Beijing Olympics, according to a Uyghur exile group and local officials.
“The mosque was illegal in the first place,” a Uyghur government official said by telephone. Asked for details, he replied, “It’s difficult to talk about it. It falls under classified information. I cannot give you any detailed information.”
A village elder who asked not to be named said village youths had been gathering for Friday prayers at the mosque in secret, angering local officials.
“They reject these prayers at government-registered mosques,” the elder said.
The mosque was built in 1999, without a permit, 80 kms from the Upper Kumtagh village in Kalpin [in Chinese, Keping] county, he said, adding, “The mosque was illegal.”
Local authorities recently learned of the secret gatherings, he said, after “two members of the local youth community were arrested when they went to inner China to learn kung fu, and they talked about the Friday prayers.”
According to exiled World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilxat Raxit, the mosque was targeted because it resisted pressure to publicize the Beijing Olympics.
The county government Web site said the mosque had been demolished because it was illegally built and has been conducting illegal religious activities. It also said those who violate religious laws and regulations will face punishment.
Resistance to curbs
“China is forcing mosques in East Turkestan to publicize the Beijing Olympics to get the Uyghur people to support the Games [but] this has been resisted by the Uyghurs,” Raxit said in a statement distributed by e-mail.
Raxit said the mosque, which had been renovated in 1998, was accused of illegally renovating the structure, carrying out illegal religious activities and illegally storing copies of the Muslim holy book the Koran.
Education campaign
The Web site also said local authorities have mobilized people from all walks of life to study Communist Party policy on ethnic minorities in a bid to curb the infiltration by separatists and terrorists.
This education campaign, the Uyghur official said, “has nothing to do with the Beijing Olympics. We are in a remote area and the demolition of the mosque has nothing to do with the Olympics.”
A primary school official in Kalpin county said Monday that the local education bureau had instructed every school to make and distribute Olympic-related pictures and artworks.
Olympic torch
The Olympic torch relay passed through Xinjiang last week under tight security.
Residents were told to remain indoors with few exceptions and gatherings were banned. Foreign media were under tight controls, and large-scale traffic restrictions were also in place during the torch rally there.
Beijing has said it fears Muslim separatists may be planning “terrorist activities” around the Olympics, vowing to tighten security in the region, where anti-Beijing sentiment is rife.
Six decades of tension
Both Tibetans and Uyghurs have chafed under Beijing’s rule for the last six decades, and Chinese authorities have faced persistent accusations of repression and abuse.
China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” The ETIM has denied that charge.
China Executes Two Uyghurs
2008-07-11
Authorities in Xinjiang execute two Uyghurs for alleged terror links. Fifteen others are sentenced.
WASHINGTON—Chinese authorities in the northwestern region of Xinjiang have executed two ethnic minority Uyghurs and sentenced 15 others for alleged terrorist links, according to local sources.
The Kashgar Intermediate Court sentenced two men—identified as Mukhtar Setiwaldi and Abduweli Imin—to death and immediately executed them after a public trial July 9 in Yengi Sheher county, Kashgar, Uyghur sources and a local official said.
Three others Uyghurs were handed two-year suspended death sentences and the rest were sentenced to jail terms ranging from 10 years to life, the sources said.
All 17 were charged as members of the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), which Beijing accuses of terrorist ties. ETIM denies the allegation.One of the defendants shouted a slogan as he was being taken away—he raised his fist and shouted—but I couldn’t hear what he said."
-Witness
Authorities ordered county residents to attend the trial but police banned cameras, lighters, and recording devices, the sources told RFA’s Uyghur service.
“It was an open trial,”one official at the Yengi Sheher county court said. “The Kashgar Intermediate Court was responsible for the case. Our duty was to provide a place for this open trial. I am not authorized to speak about it. The Kashgar Intermediate Court officials can give you detailed information.”
Officials at Kashgar Intermediate Court, contacted by telephone, declined to comment.
‘Political criminals’
“I participated in the open trial,” one Uyghur woman said. “Seventeen people were sentenced. All of them were political criminals. At the open trial, the authorities announced that these people were terrorists who took part in Aktu incident and some of them donated money.”
The “Aktu incident” refers to a Chinese raid on what authorities described as a terrorist camp in the Pamir mountains, in Aktu county, in January 2007. Authorities claimed to have killed 18 ETIM members and arrested 17.
“There were a lot of people. About 10,000 people attended the open trial,” she said. “The parents and relatives of the defendants weren’t allowed to attend. Members of the village committees, students, teachers, and government employees were allowed to attend.”
“One of the defendants shouted a slogan as he was being taken away—he raised his fist and shouted—but I couldn’t hear what he said,” another woman who watched the trial said.
Earlier incident
The trial came a day after police used smoke to force open a flat where 15 Uyghurs were staying in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, before shooting dead five Uyghurs inside who the official media said were planning a “holy war,” witnesses and official media said.
“The injured were sent to hospital and the other nine people were captured,” the official Xinhua news agency quoted a police officer as saying. “The suspects confessed they had all received training on the launching of a ‘holy war.’ Their aim was to kill Han people, the most populous ethnic group in China whom they took as heretics, and found their own state.”
Uyghurs, like Tibetans, have a long history under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule-which has at times erupted in violence. But exiled Uyghurs deny the existence of an organized terrorist campaign and say previous incidents have been fabricated or exaggerated to secure international support for a crackdown.
In March, Chinese authorities said they had broken up and arrested members of a group that were threatening to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.
China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that ETIM was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” ETIM has denied that charge.
Uyghurs Killed in Raid
2008-07-10 
Police opened fire, killing five and injuring two, Xinhua said. The incident comes just weeks before the opening of the Beijing Olympics under extremely tight security.
“The injured were sent to hospital and the other nine people were captured,” it quoted a police officer as saying. “The suspects confessed they had all received training on the launching of a ‘holy war.’ Their aim was to kill Han people, the most populous ethnic group in China whom they took as heretics, and found their own state,” it said.
‘Terrorist actions’
A Uyghur police officer, contacted by telephone, said only that the raid was “related to terrorist actions.” He said he didn’t know where the nine Uyghurs who were arrested or the two who were wounded were being held.
Another neighbor who asked to be identified as Li confirmed the five shooting deaths but downplayed its significance. “It was an ordinary robbery case. Let’s not exaggerate it,” he said, adding that he believed the use of deadly force was appropriate.
Another neighbor described the area as peaceful, with Uyghurs accounting for about 30 percent of the population of the building. “The environment is pretty good,” he said, adding that he had never witnessed tensions between Han Chinese and Uyghur residents.
A police officer also reported that Xinjiang police had recently stepped up their own security. “We have even been afraid to take a siesta,” he said. Asked if they were feared retaliation, he replied, “Yes.”
An officer on duty at the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau denied any knowledge of the incident.
“I cannot talk about these things,” the officer said. “I don’t know anything about it.” He then hung up the phone.
Long history
Dilxat Raxit, exiled spokesman of the World Uyghur Congress, sharply criticized the shootings.
“To shoot and kill has become a new method of cracking down on Uyghurs in China. We call on the United Nations to send international lawyers and give effective legal assistance to those Uyghurs in detention so that the truth can be known,” he said.
Uyghurs, like Tibetans, have a long history under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule-which has at times erupted in violence.
But exiled Uyghurs deny the existence of an organized terrorist campaign and say previous incidents have been fabricated or exaggerated to secure international support for a crackdown.
In March, Chinese authorities said they had broken up and arrested members of a group that were threatening to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.
China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” The ETIM has denied that charge.
Chinese police stage a dramatic raid on a flat occupied by ethnic Uyghurs in the restive Xinjiang region.
HONG KONG—Chinese police used smoke to force open a flat in the restive northwestern region of Xinjiang before shooting dead five ethnic Uyghurs inside who the official media said were planning a “holy war,” a witness to the incident has said.
“They threw a smoke bomb at the apartment. Then police got into the apartment and during this time one of the police was hurt by the one of the Uyghurs,” a neighbor and witness said.
“After this first injury, the police began to fire their guns. Five of the Uyghurs ended up dead. Women were also occupying the apartment at this time. All of these Uyghurs were young men and women,” the man, who asked to be identified only as Duan, said.
“They were only equipped with knives,” he said of the Uyghurs. “Now the situation is pretty peaceful in our neighborhood and normal. The police told us that they were terrorists.”
On Tuesday, July 8, police in the Xinjiang capital, Urumqi, raided an apartment where 15 Uyghurs—a distinct Muslim minority—were hiding, the official Xinhua news agency said. It said they had rushed out wielding knives and shouting “sacrifice for Allah.”Now the situation is pretty peaceful in our neighborhood and normal. The police told us that they were terrorists."
-Neighbor
Police opened fire, killing five and injuring two, Xinhua said. The incident comes just weeks before the opening of the Beijing Olympics under extremely tight security.
“The injured were sent to hospital and the other nine people were captured,” it quoted a police officer as saying. “The suspects confessed they had all received training on the launching of a ‘holy war.’ Their aim was to kill Han people, the most populous ethnic group in China whom they took as heretics, and found their own state,” it said.
‘Terrorist actions’
A Uyghur police officer, contacted by telephone, said only that the raid was “related to terrorist actions.” He said he didn’t know where the nine Uyghurs who were arrested or the two who were wounded were being held.
Another neighbor who asked to be identified as Li confirmed the five shooting deaths but downplayed its significance. “It was an ordinary robbery case. Let’s not exaggerate it,” he said, adding that he believed the use of deadly force was appropriate.
Another neighbor described the area as peaceful, with Uyghurs accounting for about 30 percent of the population of the building. “The environment is pretty good,” he said, adding that he had never witnessed tensions between Han Chinese and Uyghur residents.
A police officer also reported that Xinjiang police had recently stepped up their own security. “We have even been afraid to take a siesta,” he said. Asked if they were feared retaliation, he replied, “Yes.”
An officer on duty at the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau denied any knowledge of the incident.
“I cannot talk about these things,” the officer said. “I don’t know anything about it.” He then hung up the phone.
Long history
Dilxat Raxit, exiled spokesman of the World Uyghur Congress, sharply criticized the shootings.
“To shoot and kill has become a new method of cracking down on Uyghurs in China. We call on the United Nations to send international lawyers and give effective legal assistance to those Uyghurs in detention so that the truth can be known,” he said.
Uyghurs, like Tibetans, have a long history under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule-which has at times erupted in violence.
But exiled Uyghurs deny the existence of an organized terrorist campaign and say previous incidents have been fabricated or exaggerated to secure international support for a crackdown.
In March, Chinese authorities said they had broken up and arrested members of a group that were threatening to sabotage the Beijing Olympics.
China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), was a “major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden.” The ETIM has denied that charge.
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