Society

Xinjiang continues to face threats of terrorism

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-09-11 11:09

URUMQI - Dry cleaning store-owner Cao Xia hears about violence quite often in her city of Aksu, a remote place in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, over the 23 years she has lived in the city.

But fear gripped her anew when she heard about the recent bomb attack near her daughter's school.

On August 19, three attackers drove an explosive-laden electric tricycle into a crowd on the outskirts of Aksu. The blast killed eight and wounded 15 others.

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The casualties included three security enforcers, three civilians, and two attackers. Police did not categorize the attack as a suicide bombing but said two of the attackers died while carrying out the attack.

"They were brutal," said Cao, who migrated from central China's Henan Province with her husband when she was in her early 20s. "After all these years, I thought I had turned numb to the violence. But now I really fear I might die when I go out onto the street."

The Aksu bombing ended a one-year break in violence - the first attack since the deadly Urumqi riot on July 5, 2009. And it was about two years since the bomb attacks in Xinjiang that occurred at around the time of the opening of the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

Authorities blamed the "three forces" - an umbrella category for separatists, extremists and terrorists - for the attacks.

Xinjiang - with 41.5 percent of its population Uygurs, a largely Muslim Chinese ethnic group - is China's frontline against terrorism. The region borders eight central and west Asian countries, many of which have been attacked by terrorist and extremist militant groups.

Despite years of crackdowns, analysts and local officials say the threat, especially from the "East Turkistan" forces, persists.

"The 'East Turkistan' groups have never given up their plans to sabotage China," says Yang Shu, a leading Chinese anti-terrorism expert at Lanzhou University. "China still faces an arduous challenge to combat terrorism."

With the aim of splitting Xinjiang off from China, the "East Turkistan" forces appeared in 1930s to 1940s and turned extremely violent in the 1990s, says Pan Zhiping, a researcher with the Central Asia Studies Institute under the Xinjiang Academy of Social Sciences.

Pan says that among the "East Turkistan" forces, the most violent and dangerous is the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) - a terrorist organization based somewhere along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.

The United Nations and the Chinese government have labeled it an international terrorist organization.

According to the Chinese police, the group is now led by Memetiming Memeti, 39, after its former head, Hasan Mahsum, was killed by US-led coalition forces in Pakistan in 2003.

Al Qaeda has provided funds and training to the group.

The ETIM traditionally trains its members for suicide bombings and car bombings before sending them to Xinjiang, analysts say. But today more are using the Internet to penetrate the border to spread bomb-making techniques.

Zhang Xiuming, a retired senior security official of Xinjiang, says dozens of terrorist organizations and armed groups are based in the crescent-shaped belt to the west of Xinjiang - parts of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan - turning the region into a hotbed of terrorism.

Zhang, who oversaw law and order at the Communist Party of China Xinjiang Committee, says in a recently published book the "East Turkistan" forces were responsible for at least 200 violent attacks in Xinjiang between 1990 and 2007.

He says Xinjiang police broke up 117 terrorist or violent rings between 2003 and 2007, preventing the terrorist groups from taking root in Xinjiang.

China is also actively participating in anti-terror drills under the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

The latest drill kicked off in Almaty, south Kazakhstan, on Thursday with the participation of 5,000 troops. It is the seventh joint anti-terror drill held by SCO members since 2002.

Chen Bingde, chief of the General Staff of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (PLA), said the goal of the drill was to show the SCO members' readiness to fight the "three forces" to maintain stability in the region.

In Urumqi, the air remains tense over one year after the July 5, 2009, riot which led to the deaths of 197 and the wounding of 1600.

Authorities named Uygur woman Rebiya Kadeer, president of the Germany-registered World Uygur Congress (WUC), the prime suspect for inciting the unrest. The WUC was listed by Beijing as a terrorist organization in 2003.

Following the unrest, larger numbers of Urumqi residents bought private cars so they could avoid public transport. Traffic jams then become more common and the streets in front of schools are especially crowded after class when anxious parents wait in cars to collect their children.

The impact on trade has also been significant, exacerbating the affects of the global economic downturn last year.

Yang Kaixin, director of border trade under the Xinjiang regional commerce bureau, says incomes from foreign trade totaled $7.56 billion in the first seven months this year, up 12.6 percent from a year earlier but still far below the 2008 figures.

"The trade is recovering but has not yet reached our target," ?Yang says.

Border traders feel the pinch.

At Bianmao Hotel, a market near Xinjiang University in southern Urumqi, business is slow.

"Big clients now prefer to go directly to suppliers in inland provinces. Only small clients come to us here," says a trader surnamed Yang who runs an electronics store.

The Chinese central government this year unveiled unprecedented aid packages to boost development in Xinjiang.

The government aims to narrow the gap between Xinjiang and other inland regions as much as possible over the next 10 years, guaranteeing Xinjiang will fulfill its goal of achieving a "moderately prosperous society in all aspects" by 2020.

That means Xinjiang's annual growth over the next five years should reach 10.5 percent per year.

But the growth target may be missed if stability concerns run deep.