UN and US call for restraint as unrest in China's Xinjiang region leaves 156 dead

Two women comfort each other
in Urumqi during the deadly ethnic violence.

July 07

THE US and UN chief Ban Ki-moon led international calls for restraint after unrest in China's restive Xinjiang region left at least 156 people dead.

The White House said it was “deeply concerned” about the reports of deaths in the western region's capital Urumqi.

“We call on all in Xinjiang to exercise restraint,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a brief statement issued in Moscow, where US President Barack Obama was on an official visit.

China said that at least 156 people were killed on Sunday when Muslim Uighurs rioted in some of the deadliest ethnic unrest to have hit the country for decades.

The violence in Urumqi on Sunday involved thousands of people and triggered an enormous security crackdown across Xinjiang, where tension has long simmered amid Uighur claims of repressive Chinese rule.

US State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said he expected the region's violence to be discussed in a meeting between Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and visiting Chinese Deputy Foreign Minister Wu Dawei.

“I'm sure that we'll raise some of these concerns that we have about the violence in Xinjiang the last few days,” Kelly said.

The UN secretary general said, “Wherever it is happening or has happened the position of the United Nations and the secretary general has been consistent and clear: that all the differences of opinion, whether domestic or international, must be resolved peacefully through dialogue.

“Governments concerned must also exercise extreme care and take necessary measures to protect the life and safety of the civilian population and their citizens and their properties, and protect freedom of speech, freedom of assembly and freedom of information,” he told a news conference in Geneva.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown's spokesman said London was concerned about the reports of violence and called for problems in Xinjiang to be resolved through dialogue.

“Of course we are concerned about the reports of violence and the scale of the loss of life and I think we would urge restraint on all sides and, where possible, for problems to be resolved through dialogue,” the spokesman said.

The president of the European parliament, Hans Gert Poettering, called on Chinese authorities to respect human rights.

“The news which is emerging of how these protests have been handled is deeply disturbing,” he said in a statement. “I appeal to all sides for calm and restraint.”

“I explicitly appeal to the Chinese authorities to act in a manner that fully respects human dignity and fundamental human rights, including the right to freedom of expression and peaceful demonstration,” he said.

“I also appeal to the Chinese authorities to allow local and international media to carry out their work in full freedom, including unrestricted access to the internet,” he added.

Protesters in The Hague lashed out at the Chinese embassy.

Dutch police said they detained about 60 people protesting outside the Chinese embassy in The Hague. Rocks and cobble stones were hurled over the walls around the building and several windows were broken.

About 200 people took part in the demonstration which was called by an association of Muslim Uighurs in the Netherlands.

They brandished flags and banners reading “Chinese go back to China” and shouted “Terrorist China” when being whisked away by police cars and buses to the main police station.

Turkey called on China to punish those responsible for the violence in the Turkic-speaking region.

“We expect that those who triggered the incidents be determined at once and that they be brought to justice,” a brief foreign ministry statement said.

Many Uighurs have sought refuge in Turkey, where some Islamist and nationalist groups support demands for an independent Uighur homeland, which they refer to as East Turkestan.

The troubles hit as President Hu Jintao started a visit to Italy ahead of the Group of Eight industrialised powers summit this week. Italy's President Giorgio Napolitano raised the sensitive question of human rights during talks.

“We agreed that the ... economic and social progress that is being achieved in China places new demands in terms of human rights,” Napolitano said at a news conference with Hu.

Source: The Australian

Terrorists threaten Olympics

July 26, 2008 02:15pm

A SEPARATISTS group has warned of fresh attacks in China during the Beijing Olympics and taken credit for a May bus bombing in Shanghai.

A group monitoring terror threats on the internet said that Commander Seyfullah of the Turkestan Islamic Party claimed credit for several attacks in China less than a fortnight out from the start of the Olympics.

"Through this blessed jihad in Yunnan this time, the Turkestan Islamic Party warns China one more time," Seyfullah says in a video statement dated July 23, according to a transcript from the Washington-based Intel Center.

"Our aim is to target the most critical points related to the Olympics. We will try to attack Chinese central cities severely using the tactics that have never been employed," he continues.

The warnings come just a day after Chinese police claimed they cracked a terrorist cell planning to attack Shanghai Stadium, the venue where the Australian men's soccer team will open its Olympic campaign on August 7.

Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Mike Tancred said it took any terrorist threat "very seriously" but remained confident in the Chinese government's security plans for the Games.

"The safety of the athletes is paramount to us and there is a security force of 110,000 in China so we are not concerned about any terrorist threat in this country," he told AAP from Beijing today.

"We think with the size of the force they have and the knowledge they have, we think they will counter any terrorist problem that might arise.

"There is a very strong presence in the streets in Beijing with the army and the police. There are people that are stationed throughout the Olympic precinct 24 hours a day and I really can't see how any terrorist is going to crack the Chinese defences."

Australia is sending a team of more than 430 athletes to the China for the Olympics and they will be supported by a staff of 319 officials, including a medical team of 75.

Commander Seyfullah claimed credit for the May 5 Shanghai bus bombing which killed three; another Shanghai attack; an attack on police in Wenzhou on July 17 using an explosives laden tractor; a bombing of a Guangzhou plastic factory on July 17; and bombings of three buses in Yunnan province on July 21.

According to global intelligence analysts Stratfor, the Turkestan Islamic Party is another name used by the Islamic Party of East Turkestan (ETIM), an ethnic Uighur and Muslim separatist group seeking to create an independent state out of China's westernmost, heavily Muslim Xinjiang province.

The United States, China and other countries have designated ETIM a terrorist group.

Source: Herald Sun