Appeal to Interpol: Do not allow yourselves to be misused for China’s anti-terror war! Terror charges against Uighurs are exaggerated!

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) appealed on Friday to Interpol not to allow itself to be misused for China’s anti-terror war and to reject as exaggerated Peking’s complaints of terror against Uighurs. "The Chinese authorities are constantly trying to discredit members of this Muslim ethnic group and to criminalise them as "terrorists”, said the GfbV Asia expert, Ulrich Delius. However all charges of the past two months that Uighurs had planned to hijack aircraft and had engaged in a gunfight with Chinese security forces have be shown to be without foundation.

The head of Interpol, Ronald Noble, stated in Peking on Friday at a security conference that it was "very likely” that terror groups would plan attacks during the Olympic Games in the summer of 2008. Thereupon China’s authorities emphasised once again their charges against Uighurs.

Since the terror attacks of 11th September 2001 China has systematically been defaming Uighur human rights workers as "terrorists” and has been trying to represent the persecution of the Uighurs as a contribution towards the worldwide fight against terrorism. However in the province of Xinjiang, which the Uighurs call East Turkistan, it is not Muslim extremists, but people who are standing up for their basic human rights, said Delius. It is a domestic conflict, which has nothing to do with international terrorism.

Among all the 55 ethnic minorities the approximately ten million Uighurs in the north-west of the Republic are being persecuted most. More than 700 Uighurs have been sentenced to death and executed since 1997 on the grounds of "separatism” and "terrorism”.

Danger of terrorism is overestimated – Peace-loving Uighurs are also being criminalised en bloc

Since the terror attacks of the 11th September 2001 the Chinese leaders have been at pains to label the Uighur human rights workers and critics of the government en bloc as "terrorists” and "separatists”. The persecution of these critics is presented as the contribution of the People’s Republic to the worldwide fight against terrorism. The High Commissioner of the United Nations for Human Rights and many governments throughout the world have rejected this charge. However in the run-up to the Olympic Games Peking is once more spreading dubious reports on failed "terror attacks”.

In China’s media, which are controlled by the government, Uighurs are now being equated with terrorism. It is not only the party leaders who are being quoted with their warnings of terrorists, but there are full reports on the anti-terror exercises of doctors, the police, militia and the military. In this way the authorities are increasing the tension between Uighurs and the Han-Chinese.

Killings at a raid in Urumchi

On 18th February 2008 the official news agency Xinhua reported for the first time of a raid against a Uighur "terrorist group”, in which on 27th January 2008 two people were killed in Urumchi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, and 15 other Uighurs were arrested. Five firemen were injured during the raid by the explosion of home-made Molotov cocktails, said Xinhua ((People’s Daily, 18.2.2008). Six of those arrested were injured. "Knives, axes and books” were found in the possession of those arrested, said the authorities (Reuters, 18.2.2008). The raid was carried out to ensure the safety of the Olympic Games.

The discovery of arms mentioned here made headlines throughout the world, but the credibility of the report has been seriously questioned by research conducted by an AFP correspondent (AFP, 8.4.2008). More than a dozen residents of the block of flats mentioned – among them both Han-Chinese and Uighurs – said to the journalist that they had not noticed either shots or explosions. However two men had been taken away in a delivery van by armed men. If shots had fallen they would certainly have been heard, said a Chinese neighbour, for the area is a very quiet one.

Still more confusion was caused by a report in the Hongkong newspaper "Tsingtao Daily”, which dated the raid on 4th February 2008 and stated that in the raid by the police 18 Uighurs were killed.

Hijacking or deception of the media

During the session of the National People’s Congress the Chairperson of the Xinjiang region, Nur Bekri, announced on 9th March 2008 that two days beforehand a hijacking by Uighur terrorists had been prevented. A Uighur woman with a Pakistani passport had tried to blow up a Boeing 757 of the China Southern Airline on flight CZ 6901 from Urumchi to Peking. She was seen in the toilet with suspicious liquids and was overpowered by the crew. The aircraft made an emergency landing in Lanzhou. The steward who discovered the woman and the cabin crew were given a large reward by the authorities. Reports stated that four persons were arrested on landing. On 27th March the authorities finally presented a so-called "confession” of the 19 year old Uigur woman, Guzalinur Turdi, who is said to have admitted to the planned terror attack on the scheduled flight (Bernama, / Associated Press, 27.3.2008).

However "confessions” carry traditionally very little weight in Chinese courts since they are usually extracted under compulsion or torture. So anti-terror experts also have their doubts as to the authenticity of the circumstances reported. It is inconceivable that an aircraft could make an emergency landing after a planned terror attack and then after the arrest of the presumed criminals just take off again without all the passengers being fully questioned. The aircraft would also have to be investigated closely for traces following an attack of this kind. It seems clear that none of this took place. The incident is more reminiscent of the constantly reccurring problem with drunken passengers, who after a short landing are required to leave the aircraft. Neither is it comprehensible why Uighurs should want to blow up a plane above a desert which is uninhabited. Real terrorists would have chosen a densely populated area. A further surprise is provided by the kind of explosive allegedly chosen. Experts say that kerosene and petrol are not usually used by terrorists for explosions. It is also weird that the Chinese authorities provided no detailed information on the alleged attack to international terror investigation offices if they are so concerned to accuse Uighurs with terrorism.

Western embassies requested the Chinese authorities to provide them with further information on the incident. There has to date (11th April 2008) however been no reaction to this request.

As long as China’s authorities produce no further clear proof to shore up their charge of a thwarted hijacking and blowing-up there remains serious doubt as to the guilt of the Uighurs.

Rumours on attacks on buses

Chinese security authorities stated on 25th March 2008 that several people had been arrested in Urumchi because they had spread rumours that two buses in the capital of Xinjiang had been blown up by Uighurs. The local security office announced that these rumours were "complete nonsense” (Xinhua / Reuters, 25.3.2008).

Planned attacks on Olympia sportsmen and women?

The Chinese Ministry of the Interior announced at the beginning of April (Los Angeles Times, 11.4.2008 / Associated Press, 10 /11.4.2008) that between 26th March and 6th April a group of 45 Uighur conspirators had been arrested, who had intended to sabotage the Olympic games with suicide attacks and the abduction of Olympic sportsmen and women, tourists and journalists. The authorities declared that at the time of the arrest ten kilograms of explosive, eight sticks of dynamite, two detonators and terrorist literature had been confiscated. It was clear (Tippfehler im dt. Text), said the official reports, that the criminals had prepared attacks with bombs and poison gas against hotels, offices and military installations in Peking, Shanghai and other cities. Their aim was to sabotage the Olympic Games, said a speaker for the Ministry of the Interior.

In this case China’s authorities have not shown any initiative either in placing all the material gathered to the foreign security services and above all to the directly involved International Olympic Committee (IOC). So the IOC learned of the arrests from the media and was not informed in the following days by the Chinese security offices (Agence France Press, 11.4.2008). The police in Urumchi also stated that they knew nothing of any connection of the arrests with the Olympic Games (The Telegraph, 10.3.2008) (Wenn die Daily Telegraph hier gemeint ist, dann muss unbedingt Daily Telegraph stehen)

China announced the arrests at the height of the discussions concerning human rights violations and the Olympics in Peking. If China intends to clear up the suspicion that it is trying to divert further critical reports in the media on violations of human rights against Uighurs and Tibetans it must produce credible proof for attacks planned for the Olympic Games.

One of the Uirhurs arrested, Aji Maimaiti, is said to have confessed preparing the terror attacks for the Uighur "East Turkestan Islamic Movement” (ETIM). For years the Chinese leaders have been accusing the ETIM of fighting for an independent state of East Turkestan with arms and terror. Anti-terror and human rights experts warn however of an overestimation of this movement, which as a result of pressure from the Chinese was placed on the list of worldwide terror movements by the USA and the United Nations after the terror attacks of 11th September. ETIM was always a small splinter-group which became increasingly insignificant after the death of its leader, Hasan Mahsun, who was killed in the year 2003 by Pakistani troops. ETIM’s factual or presumed activities should in any case no longer be used as a pretext to suppress all critical expressions of opinion by the Uighurs and to criminalise Uighur human rights workers.