The Olympic Games are stirring up violence in north-west China

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) warned on Monday of an escalation of violence in the region of Xinjiang (East Turkistan) in the north-west of China. "That the losers there are the Uighurs is clear three days before the beginning of the Olympic Games in Peking”, said the GfbV Asia expert, Ulrich Delius. He condemned the attacks, in which a watchman and at least ten attackers lost their lives on Sunday morning.

"The attempt by extremists to draw attention to the difficult situation of the Uighurs with amateurish attacks will have catastrophic results”, warned the human rights worker. For the Chinese authorities will not be thinking about the causes of the dissatisfaction of the Moslem population, but only increase their violent persecution of Uighurs. It is therefore to be feared that such acts of desperation will only increase.

In the town of Kuga security measures have been drastically reinforced. Soldiers armed with MPs prevented people on Sunday from leaving their houses. Early on Sunday morning, at 2.30, the police-station and various installations of the authorities in the town were attacked, probably by Uighur extremists. Just like last Monday in the attack on the police in Kashgar the criminals are reported to have been armed with home-made explosives. In the early morning attacks a watchman and at least ten attackers are said to have been killed. In Kashgar 16 policemen lost their lives.

Uighurs in Kashgar have complained to the GfbV that the repression in their town has significantly increased. Leading personalities in religion and society have been intimidated or arrested. The local authorities in Kashgar stated openly on Friday that they had significantly increased their control over "key figures”, "religious personalities” and "troublemakers” in the town to secure stability in the town. The amateurish way in which both attacks were carried out suggests to the GfbV that those involved were not part of a larger international terror network, but individuals acting on their own.