Separatists trained in Afghanistan, says Chinese officialChinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan yesterday claimed that Muslim separatists in the Xinjiang province have close links with the Afghanistan-base terrorist network of Osama bin Laden. „These people have been trained at the secret training camp established by bin Laden in Afghanistan,“ Mr Tang said yesterday.
Beijing also said it wanted co-operation from the international community to fight terrorism in the Muslim-dominated north-west autonomous region.
The Xinjiang pro-independence organisation of Eastern Turkestan was a terrorist outfit and was to blame for terror attacks in Xinjiang, Mr Tang said during the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation forum summit in Shanghai yesterday.
„The bin Laden clique sent these people to the Russian separatist region of Chechnya,“ he said.
„Many of them often conduct sabotage activities on our western borders, especially in Xinjiang,“ Mr Tang said.
His remarks appeared to have been made in response to concern expressed by Western leaders that China would use the worldwide attack on terrorism as an excuse to step up its crackdown on minorities like Xinjiang's Uygurs and the Tibetans.
Last Friday, United States President George W Bush praised China for its support in the US war on global terrorism but urged China not to assume that it had carte blanche to crackdown on separatists.
„War on terrorism must never be an excuse to persecute minorities,“ Mr Bush said.
But, echoing Mr Tang yesterday, Vice Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing said separatist activities had already threatened people's safety and public order in China's west. „There are [terrorist activities] in our country too. some of the separatists have adopted terror means, which we absolutely oppose,“ Mr Li said.
„We need co-operation from foreign countries. We need co-operation from the United Nations. We need the United Nations to play an active role,“ said Mr Li, a former Chinese ambassador to the United States. |
