A wave of a suicide bombings and police shootings left eight people dead in western China on Sunday, as Uighur Islamic separatists attempted to steal global attention from the Beijing Olympics.
In what appears to be one of the most widely coordinated assaults in Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region in recent memory, the militants threw or carried homemade explosives into a dozen government sites in Kuqa city, killing a security guard, injuring two police officers, destroying two police cars and damaging trading and commerce offices.
The separatists’ most ambitious assault involved wheeling a tricycle laded with explosives into a public security bureau just before dawn. One attacker was shot, another blew himself up and two were captured, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency.
Six hours later, police tracked down some of the alleged militants in the local marketplace. In the ensuing battle, two militants were reportedly shot and three blew themselves up with homemade bombs. One suspect is in detention. Another is in hospital, but at least six are thought to be at large. The entire Kuqa county, home to 400 000 people, has now been cordoned off, business has been suspended, and paramilitaries with machine guns were patrolling the streets.
The clashes come less than a week after Xinjiang witnessed the deadliest attack on Chinese security personnel in a decade. Last Monday, two alleged Muslim jihadists in Kashgar droved a lorry into a rank of jogging paramilitaries, then killed survivors with bombs and knives. The attack claimed 16 lives, and the authorities linked it to threats made earlier by three separatist groups who want to create an East Turkestan homeland for ethnic Muslim Uighurs in the region.
On Thursday, the previously unknown Turkistan Islamic party released a video threat to attack buses, trains and airplanes during the Olympics.
Kuqa is more than 2 960km from Beijing, but Olympic organisers have identified Uighur ”terrorists” as the main threat to the games. Organisers sought to reassure athletes, journalists and tourists that Sunday’s attack would not disrupt the sporting event.
”I do not believe this will have an impact on the Olympic games,” Wang Wei, vice-president of the organising committee, told reporters.
Exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer claimed the China is exaggerating the threat posed by separatist extremists as an excuse to impose its will on Xinjiang’s the Muslim population and their peaceful campaign for more freedom.
”We advocate the principle of non-violence, and the promotion of freedom, democracy and human rights through peaceful means. We also sincerely hope for a peaceful Olympic games.”
She accused the Chinese authorities of a heavy handed crackdown in Kashgar and throughout East Turkestan in the name of the Olympics, saying that Uighurs have endured higher rates of execution and detention, forced relocation, police monitoring, passport confiscation, and the destruction of places of worship. Many Uighurs are unhappy that an influx of Han Chinese over the past 50 years has made them a minority in their homeland.
Tibetan exile groups also continued to use the Beijing games to draw attention to what they say are human rights abuses in the Himalayan region.
Five activists, including a Tibetan woman from Germany, Padma-Dolma Fielitz, were dragged from Tiananmen Square after displaying a Tibetan flag and a banner reading: ”Tibetans are dying for freedom.”
The continuing unease among many Tibetan communities was highlighted by reports that two women were shot and wounded in Aba county town — the scene of some of the worst violence in March’s wave of unrest. According to the Free Tibet Campaign, the shots came from a building that is being used as a Chinese barracks for military reinforcements sent into the area last month, apparently to ensure there are no protests during the Olympics.
United States President George Bush has used his visit to Beijing for last Friday’s opening ceremony to raise the issue of religious freedom and improved human rights. Before meeting the Chinese President, Hu Jintao, and watching American swimmer Michael Phelps win gold in the 400-metre individual medley, the US president and his wife, Laura, attended a church service in Beijing to underline his message.
”You know, it just goes to show that God is universal, and God is love, and no state, man or woman should fear the influence of loving religion,” he said, as parishioners exited the church.
But the Chinese authorities remain concerned about extremist groups. More than 100 000 police and paramilitaries have been deployed in Beijing, along with 300 000 surveillance cameras in one of the biggest security operations mounted in China. They were unable, however, to prevent the apparently random murder on Saturday on the father-in-law of the US men’s volleyball coach.
Todd Bachman was stabbed to death, and his wife, Barbara, and a Chinese guide were seriously wounded in the attack at Beijing’s 13th-century Drum Tower. The killer, Tang Yongming, lept to his death after the attack. The motive remains a mystery. Tang – who recently retired from a job at a factory in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province — had arrived in Beijing on August 1. The 47-year-old, who divorced two years ago, had no criminal record. – guardian.co.uk