Those massive truck bombs in Guizhuo, officially an industrial accident, made me look into who in China does deliberate bombings. (If you haven't heard yet like 99.9% of Americans, search "china truck explosion") Well, there has been one group that not only has been bombing buses, but contribute to the Taliban currently at war with US forces in Afghanistan (that's crusaders to the mujahideen). The East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) are Muslim ethnic Uighur separatists who are essentially Turks living in the northwestern Xinjiang region as part of the post-Mao communist Chinese empire. Some have been supported and trained by Al Queda in Afghanistan (which in turn was largely supported by the CIA in the anti-Soviet days), Still others are evidently part of the united pan-Islamist foreign fighter force that is "resisting" the US military in Afghanistan. These characters have so far received almost zero notice from the American press, even though they have been a major force in the whole Al Queda movement and the Af-Pak front in the War Against Islamist Terror.
Now these folks don't operate in Guizhuo in southwest China, but that province does brag they have a lot of minorities, so there's no obvious links here, but it certainly looks like a "close miss", but it's a very good question of whether such forces could indeed muster the money needed to fill two semi-trailers with 72 tons of TNT, not just a 24 ft moving truck. Who knows if these trucks may have been headed for Turkistan? In the US we hear a lot about the plight of Tibet, but these Turkish people evidently sit on land that's about one-sixth of what the world thinks of as China, and it seems these folks are at least as upset about being "occupied" by the Chinese as the Arabs who would rather wipe out Israel rather than negotiate with a Jewish state.
Abdul Haq: China's Star Mujahideen
China has seen itself as a victim of terrorist attacks in the 1990s, thought to be committed by
some Muslim extremists (ethnic Uighur separatists) in the northwestern Xinjiang region. Some
Uighur activists reportedly received training in Afghanistan. China’s concerns appeared to place it
in a position to support Washington and share intelligence after the attacks on September 11,
2001. In a message to President Bush on September 11, PRC ruler Jiang Zemin condemned the
terrorist attacks and offered condolences
The Uighurs are an ethnically Turkish people who speak Uyghur (close to the Turkish language) and practice a moderate form of Islam. They say that their population totals 10-15 million people. Countering China’s colonial name of “Xinjiang,” meaning “new frontier,” the Uighurs call their Central Asian homeland “East Turkistan.” The land makes up about one-sixth of today’s PRC
China’s handling of the unrest brought some foreign criticism, particularly in predominantly Muslim countries like Turkey and organizations like the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement on July 7, 2009, that focused on the Uighurs as fellow Muslims (vs. nationalistic Uighur people of “East Turkistan”) and called for unity of Islamic nations and boycotts of products made by their enemies. The Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) in Australia also issued a statement on July 8, on China’s “suppression” of Muslims in Xinjiang. In Indonesia, Hizb ut Tahrir demonstrated at
the PRC embassy on July 15. The Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan issued its statement on July 20, criticizing China’s occupation of Muslim land. In June 2010, on the eve of the first anniversary of the unrest, OIC’s Secretary-General paid the first such visit to Xinjiang, including Kashgar. Also, Al Qaeda’s network apparently issued its first threat against China. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Algeria reportedly called for vengeance against China’s interests in Africa.
At the end of July, Abdul Haq, TIP’s leader, issued a video in Uyghur and distributed by the
jihadist Al-Fajr Media Center in Arabic, that criticized the PRC for the events in Guangdong in
June and Urumqi in July, called for Uighurs to engage in jihad, and appealed to other Muslims to
target the PRC internationally. With a message from Abu-Yahya al-Libi on October 6, 2009, Al
Qaeda apparently issued its first message focused on “East Turkistan,” calling for education about
a “massacre” against Muslims in East Turkistan, a return to Islam, and use of weapons against
“invaders.” However, he did not specify TIP or attacks, while vaguely calling for China’s defeat.
In January 2010, TIP produced videos in Uyghur to claim credit for alleged actions in revenge
against China’s “bloody massacre” on July 5, 2009, and to call vaguely on Muslims in Xinjiang to
carry out jihad against China. In March 2010, TIP issued a statement to deny the PRC’s charges
that Uighur organizations linked to Rebiya Kadeer were responsible for violence in Xinjiang and
were linked to TIP. TIP denied religious or organizational links to nine democratic and peaceful
organizations such as the World Uyghur Congress, Uyghur American Association, and Uyghur
Human Rights Project. The TIP distinguished itself with radical, armed methods.
As discussed above concerning foreign deportations of Uighurs to China, the PRC influenced
Cambodia, despite U.S. and U.N. opposition, to hand over 20 Uighurs to China in December
2009. On June 24, 2010, just before the first anniversary of the unrest in July 2009, the PRC
Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced that it uncovered a “terrorist cell” that had planned
attacks in 2008 and 2009, and caught and interrogated three alleged “terrorists” among 20 PRC
citizens deported from a neighboring country, in apparent reference to Cambodia. MPS said it
found that the three had sent e-mails to ETIM to seek help in their escape.
From http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RL33001.pdf
Congressional Resarch Service
U.S.-China Counterterrorism Cooperation:
Issues for U.S. Policy
Shirley A. Kan
Specialist in Asian Security Affairs
July 15, 2010
Uighur People in Xinjiang and “Terrorist” Organizations
Questions concern the U.S. stance on the PRC’s policy toward the Uighur (“wee-ger”) people in
the northwestern Xinjiang region that links them to what the PRC calls vaguely “East Turkistan
terrorist organizations.” Congress has concerns about the human rights of Uighurs. China has
accused the United States of “double standards” in disputes over how to handle the Uighurs.
Xinjiang has a history of unrest dating back before September 2001, particularly since the unrest
in 1990. The PRC charges Uighurs (or Uyghurs) with violent crimes and “terrorism,” but Uighurs
9
Department of State, press conference, Beijing, December 6, 2001.
10
Daniel Schearf, “U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations Seeks Further Cooperation with China,” VOA, June 13, 2007.
11
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, “U.S.-East Asia Policy: Three Aspects,” Woodrow
Wilson Center, Washington, DC, December 11, 2002.
12
Author’s consultation; “Chinese Spymaster Complains About News Leak,” Washington Times, October 8, 2009. U.S.-China Counterterrorism Cooperation: Issues for U.S. Policy
Congressional Research Service 5
say they have suffered executions, torture, detentions, harassment, religious persecution, and
racial profiling. Human rights and Uighur groups have warned that, after the 9/11 attacks, the
PRC shifted to use the international counterterrorism campaign to justify the PRC’s long-term
cultural, religious, and political repression of Uighurs both in and outside of the PRC.
13
Since
2002, the PLA has conducted military exercises in Xinjiang with Central Asian countries and
Russia to fight what the PRC calls “East Turkistan terrorists” and what it combines as the threat
of “three evil forces” (separatism, extremism, and terrorism), conflating ethnic, religious, and
resistant/violent activities.
Critics say China compelled extraditions of Uighurs for execution and other punishment from
countries such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Nepal, and Pakistan, raising
questions about violations of the international legal principle of non-refoulement and the U.N.
Convention Against Torture. On December 19, 2009, Cambodia joined this list when it returned
20 Uighurs who fled Xinjiang after the unrest in July 2009. The State Department, up to even the
Secretary and Deputy Secretary, opposed Cambodia’s return of these “asylum seekers” and urged
China to ensure transparency, due process, and proper treatment for them. On April 1, 2010, the
State Department announced that on March 19, the United States told Cambodia of a suspension
in the shipment of 200 trucks and trailers that were to be provided as Excess Defense Articles. On
January 18, 2010, Burma reportedly deported 17 Uighurs and 1 Han to the PRC.
14
The Uighurs are an ethnically Turkish people who speak Uyghur (close to the Turkish language)
and practice a moderate form of Islam. They say that their population totals 10-15 million people.
Countering China’s colonial name of “Xinjiang,” meaning “new frontier,” the Uighurs call their
Central Asian homeland “East Turkistan.” The land makes up about one-sixth of today’s PRC.
In 1884, the Manchurian Qing empire based in northern China incorporated the area as a province
called “Xinjiang.” Later, it was briefly the Republic of East Turkistan in 1933 and in 1944, and a
Soviet satellite power from 1934 to 1941. In October 1949, the Communist Party of China set up
the PRC and deployed PLA troops to occupy and govern Xinjiang. In 1955, the PRC incorporated
the area as the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.”
15
In addition to PLA forces, the
paramilitary People’s Armed Police (PAP) has imposed controls. Unique to Xinjiang are the
paramilitary Production and Construction Corps (PCC) guarding, producing, and settling there;
the past nuclear weapon testing at Lop Nur; and routine executions for what Uighurs say are
political and religious dissent. Uighurs complain of forced assimilation, instead of “autonomy.”
Like Tibetans, Uighurs resent the Communist controls on religion, military deployments and
exercises, increasing immigration of ethnic Han (Chinese) people, and forced birth control. PRC
census data in 2003 report Uighurs at 8.4 million and Hans at 40% of Xinjiang’s population (up
from 6% in 1953). In the early 1990s, the breakup of the Soviet Union and independence of
neighboring Central Asian republics encouraged the Uighurs. In response to their dissent, the
PRC regime routinely has held huge public sentencing rallies and executions of Uighurs, forcing
thousands to watch (one in 1998 involved more than 20,000) and intimidating Uighurs by “killing
one to frighten thousands,” according to official PRC media.
As discussed above, Francis Taylor, the State Department’s Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism,
visited Beijing in December 2001. While he confirmed that there were “people from western
13
Amnesty International, “Uighurs Fleeing Persecution as China Wages its ‘War on Terror’,” July 7, 2004; Uyghur
Human Rights Project, “Persecution of Uyghurs in the Era of the ‘War on Terror’,” October 16, 2007.
14
Uyghur American Association, January 26, 2010, citing sina.com.
15
James Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: a History of Xinjiang, Columbia University, 2007. U.S.-China Counterterrorism Cooperation: Issues for U.S. Policy
Congressional Research Service 6
China that are involved in terrorist activities in Afghanistan,” he rejected the view that “all of the
people of western China are indeed terrorists” and urged Beijing to deal politically with their
“legitimate” social and economic challenges and not with counterterrorism means. Taylor stated
that the United States did not agree that “East Turkestan” forces were terrorists. He said that the
U.S. military captured some people from western China who were involved in Afghanistan with
Al Qaeda (the terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden).
Nonetheless, while in Beijing on August 26, 2002, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage
announced that, after months of bilateral discussions, he designated (on August 19) the East
Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist group that committed acts of violence
against unarmed civilians. China had issued a new report in January 2002, publicly charging
ETIM and other East Turkistan “terrorist” groups with attacks in the 1990s and linking them to
the international terrorism of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.
16
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing
suggested that ETIM planned to attack the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan, but no attack took place.
The Kyrgyz Foreign Minister cited as suspicious that one Uighur was found with a map of
embassies in Bishkek.
17
Armitage called on China to respect the rights of Uighurs, but he also
said that Washington was grateful for China’s support at the United Nations Security Council.
18
Since then, the United States has refused to designate any other PRC-targeted and “East
Turkistan” or Uighur-related organization as a “terrorist organization.”
The State Department designated ETIM as a terrorist organization to freeze its assets under
Executive Order 13224 (“Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who
Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism”) but not as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
(FTO) (under the Immigration and Nationality Act). E.O. 13224 defines “terrorism” as “activity
that (1) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and
(2) appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of
a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass
destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking.” At the same time, the United States,
PRC, Afghanistan, and Kyrgyzstan asked the United Nations to designate ETIM under U.N.
Security Council Resolutions 1267 and 1390 (to freeze assets of this group).
Later, in 2004, the Secretary of State also included ETIM in the “Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL)”
(to exclude certain foreign aliens from entering the United States), under Section 411 of the USA
PATRIOT Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-56).
In April 2009, the Treasury Department designated Abdul Haq (aka Abdul Heq), a Uighur born
in Xinjiang and leader of the East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP), another name for ETIM, as
an individual targeted under E.O. 13224. (Also see discussion of ETIM’s leadership below.) As
part of the justification for the designation, the Treasury Department declared that Haq had
directed in January 2008 the military commander of ETIP to attack cities in China holding the
Olympic Games but did not state that such attacks occurred. Also, the Treasury Department noted
that as of 2005 (four years prior), Haq was a member of Al Qaeda’s Shura Council (consultative
group).
19 Just preceding the U.S. designation, the U.N. Security Council acted under Resolution
16 PRC State Council, “‘East Turkistan’ Terrorist Forces Cannot Get Away with Impunity,” Xinhua, January 21, 2002.
17 Philip Pan, “U.S. Warns of Plot by Group in W. China,” Washington Post, August 29, 2002.
18 Quoted in “U.S. Adds East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) to Terror List,” Voice of America, August 26, 2002.
19 Department of the Treasury, April 20, and Federal Register, April 27, 2009. U.S.-China ounterterrorism Cooperation: Issues for U.S. Policy Congressional Research Service 7
1267 to identify Haq as a Uighur born in Xinjiang in 1971, the overall leader in Pakistan of
ETIM, and an individual associated with Al Qaeda. A newspaper reported from Islamabad in mid-
2009 that Abdul Haq was among Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders who met with the leader of the
Pakistani Taliban (a group formed in 2007), Baitullah Mehsud, about ceasing attacks in Pakistan
to focus on the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.
20
In March 2010, various PRC and other media reported that a drone attack killed Abdul Haq in February in North Waziristan, an anarchic border region of Pakistan. However, the PRC Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm the claim. The case against ETIM—including even its name—has been complicated, in part by questions of the credibility of PRC claims that link “terrorism” to repressed groups like Uighurs, Tibetans, and Falungong. Moreover, there have been challenges in verifying the authenticity of Internet messages and websites ostensibly belonging to the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), apparently another name for ETIM, with possibilities that the messages were created by such a terrorist group, fabricated by the PRC to justify its charges, or made as a deception by a third party. No group calling itself ETIM claimed responsibility for violent incidents in the 1990s. Although many Uighur or East Turkistan advocacy groups around the world have been reported for decades, the first available mention of ETIM was found in 2000. A Russian newspaper reported that Osama bin Laden convened a meeting in Afghanistan in 1999 that included the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and ETIM, and he agreed to give them funds.
21 A Kyrgyz report in 2001 named ETIM as a militant Uighur organization with links to IMU and training in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, but did not mention any links to Al Qaeda.
22 Detailed information on
“three evil forces” written in August 2001 by a PRC scholar at the Xinjiang Academy of Social
Sciences did not name ETIM.
23 Before the PRC government’s public report of January 2002 on
“East Turkestan terrorists,” most were not aware of ETIM, and PRC officials or official media did
not mention ETIM until a Foreign Ministry news conference shortly after the September 2001
terrorist attacks in the United States. But even then, the PRC did not blame ETIM for any of
alleged incidents.
24In 2002, the leader of what China called ETIM, Hasan Mahsum, referred to his organization as
the East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP) and said that it had no “organizational links” with Al
Qaeda or Taliban (the extremist Islamic regime formed by former anti-Soviet Islamic fighters
called Mujahedin that took over Afghanistan in 1994-1996). Moreover, he claimed that ETIM did
not receive any financial aid from Osama bin Laden or Al Qaeda, although certain Uighur
individuals were involved with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
25 In November 2003, an organization calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) posted on the Internet its denial of the U.S. and PRC designations of ETIM as a “terrorist organization.”
26 In December 2003, the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security issued its first list of wanted
“terrorists,” accusing four groups as “East Turkistan terrorist organizations” (ETIM, East
Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO), World Uyghur Youth Congress, and East Turkistan
Information Center) and 11 Uighurs as “terrorists,” with Hasan Mahsum at the top of the list.
27China demanded foreign assistance to target them. However, the list was intentionally misleading
or mistaken, because Mahsum was already dead. Confirming his operational area at the AfghanPakistani border, Pakistan’s military killed a multinational motley that included Mahsum on
October 2, 2003, in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal district.
28 In December 2003, the leadership of what it called TIP (having changed its name from ETIP in 1999 to be inclusive of non-Uighur Turkic peoples) posted on the Internet a eulogy of Mahsum. TIP reviewed his development of an organization in Afghanistan with the Taliban’s support but not contact with Al Qaeda. The TIP announced that former Military Affairs Commander Abdul Haq took over as the leader (amir).
29However, the PRC Ministry of Public Security’s list did not include Abdul Haq.
There was corroboration about their names. Hozaifa Parhat, one of the 22 Uighurs who were in
Afghanistan until late 2001 then ended up at Guantanamo by 2002 and whose name was placed in
the landmark court case on whether to release them, readily told his Combatant Status Review
Tribunal between 2004 and 2005 that he saw Mahsum who was the leader at the Uighur camp in
Afghanistan. Parhat and some other Uighur detainees also said that they heard of Abdul Haq.
In 2004, the deputy leader, Abudula Kariaji, said that ETIM had sent militants trained in small
arms and explosives to China and had met in 1999 with Osama bin Laden, who allowed some
Uighurs to train in Afghanistan but did not support their non-Arab cause of over-throwing China’s
rule.
30
In January 2008, Al Qaeda in Afghanistan issued a book on 120 “martyrs” that included
five who were Uighurs born in Xinjiang and fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan. One of them
was said to have died fighting U.S. military forces that launched attacks in 2001.
31
In 2003, Mehmet Emin Hazret, the leader of the East Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO),
another organization targeted by the PRC’s 2002 report as a “terrorist organization,” denied that
his group was responsible for violent incidents or had knowledge of an organization called ETIM,
although he knew of its alleged leaders who had been in PRC prisons. Hazret also denied that
ETLO had links to Al Qaeda. Nonetheless, he acknowledged that ETLO would inevitably set up a
military wing to target the PRC government for its oppression of the Uighur people.
32
The PRC’s own report of 2002 on “East Turkistan terrorists” claimed bombing incidents in
Xinjiang from 1991 to 1998, with none after that year. That report did not discuss bombings
outside of Xinjiang or call those other violent incidents “terrorism.” The report alleged that some
“terrorist” bombings occurred in February to April 1998 and injured 11 people. However, there
were no PRC or non-PRC media reports of such incidents in 1998. Moreover, Xinjiang’s Party
Secretary Wang Lequan and Chairman Abulahat Abdurixit said in Beijing in early 1998 and 1999
that there were no major violent incidents in 1998. In April 1998, a PRC official journal published
a comprehensive report on crime, cited bombings in 1997 but none in 1998, and stated that China
had no terrorist organizations and had not been penetrated by any international terrorist groups.
In May 1998, Xinjiang’s Vice Chairman Zhang Zhou told foreign reporters that there was an
explosion near Kashgar earlier that year, but no one was killed or wounded.
34
Before August 2008, the last bombing incident in Xinjiang reported by PRC and non-PRC media
occurred in 1997, when three bombs exploded in three buses in Urumqi on February 25, 1997,
while two other undetonated bombs were found on two buses. Many reports speculated that the
deadly attacks were timed for the mourning period of PRC paramount ruler Deng Xiaoping, who
died on February 19.
35
However, the likely critical factor was the preceding major turmoil and
crackdown in Xinjiang that occurred on February 5-6 in Yining (the western town Uighurs call
Gulja), involving Uighur protests against executions, security crackdown, and perhaps hundreds
killed and thousands arrested. Uighurs and Amnesty International called the incident the “Gulja
Massacre.”
36
Shortly after the incident on February 25, further bombings were reported in Urumqi
on March 1, in Yining on March 3, in Beijing on March 5 and March 7, near Guangzhou on May
12, and in Beijing on May 13; but the PRC did not label the incidents outside of Xinjiang as
“terrorist incidents.” The incidents in 1997 occurred after the PRC government launched in 1996
the national anti-crime “Strike Hard” campaign that was carried out in Xinjiang and Tibet with
crackdowns against those China called “separatists.”
Now these folks don't operate in Guizhuo in southwest China, but that province does brag they have a lot of minorities, so there's no obvious links here, but it certainly looks like a "close miss", but it's a very good question of whether such forces could indeed muster the money needed to fill two semi-trailers with 72 tons of TNT, not just a 24 ft moving truck. Who knows if these trucks may have been headed for Turkistan? In the US we hear a lot about the plight of Tibet, but these Turkish people evidently sit on land that's about one-sixth of what the world thinks of as China, and it seems these folks are at least as upset about being "occupied" by the Chinese as the Arabs who would rather wipe out Israel rather than negotiate with a Jewish state.
Abdul Haq: China's Star Mujahideen
Abdul Haq is particularly notable Uighur born in Xinjiang in 1971. He was the overall leader in Pakistan of
ETIM, and an individual associated with Al Qaeda. A newspaper reported from Islamabad in mid-
2009 that Abdul Haq was among Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders who met with the leader of the
Pakistani Taliban about ceasing attacks in Pakistan to focus on the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.
(this is the same story in the "Inside Al Queda" book by the slain Pakistan journalist who wrote that Al Queda's goal is to destroy or weaken US forces by drawing them into a trap in Afghanstan) In March 2010, various PRC and other media reported that a drone attack killed in February in North Waziristan, the central base area of Af-Pak resistance.
China has seen itself as a victim of terrorist attacks in the 1990s, thought to be committed by
some Muslim extremists (ethnic Uighur separatists) in the northwestern Xinjiang region. Some
Uighur activists reportedly received training in Afghanistan. China’s concerns appeared to place it
in a position to support Washington and share intelligence after the attacks on September 11,
2001. In a message to President Bush on September 11, PRC ruler Jiang Zemin condemned the
terrorist attacks and offered condolences
The Uighurs are an ethnically Turkish people who speak Uyghur (close to the Turkish language) and practice a moderate form of Islam. They say that their population totals 10-15 million people. Countering China’s colonial name of “Xinjiang,” meaning “new frontier,” the Uighurs call their Central Asian homeland “East Turkistan.” The land makes up about one-sixth of today’s PRC
While in Beijing on August 26, 2002, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage announced that, after months of bilateral discussions, he designated (on August 19) the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist group that committed acts of violence against unarmed civilians. China had issued a new report in January 2002, publicly charging ETIM and other East Turkistan “terrorist” groups with attacks in the 1990s and linking them to the international terrorism of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. In December 2002, Assistant Secretary of State James Kelly defended the designation of ETIM as a step based on U.S. evidence that ETIM had links to Al Qaeda and committed violence against civilians, “not as a concession to the PRC.
Human rights and Uighur groups have warned that, after the 9/11 attacks, the PRC shifted to use the international counterterrorism campaign to justify the PRC’s long-term cultural, religious, and political repression of Uighurs both in and outside of the PRC.
Before August 2008, the last bombing incident in Xinjiang reported by PRC and non-PRC media
occurred in 1997, when three bombs exploded in three buses in Urumqi on February 25, 1997,
while two other undetonated bombs were found on two buses. Many reports speculated that the
deadly attacks were timed for the mourning period of PRC paramount ruler Deng Xiaoping, who
died on February 19.
China’s handling of the unrest brought some foreign criticism, particularly in predominantly Muslim countries like Turkey and organizations like the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC). The Muslim Brotherhood issued a statement on July 7, 2009, that focused on the Uighurs as fellow Muslims (vs. nationalistic Uighur people of “East Turkistan”) and called for unity of Islamic nations and boycotts of products made by their enemies. The Hizb ut-Tahrir (Party of Liberation) in Australia also issued a statement on July 8, on China’s “suppression” of Muslims in Xinjiang. In Indonesia, Hizb ut Tahrir demonstrated at
the PRC embassy on July 15. The Hizb ut-Tahrir in Pakistan issued its statement on July 20, criticizing China’s occupation of Muslim land. In June 2010, on the eve of the first anniversary of the unrest, OIC’s Secretary-General paid the first such visit to Xinjiang, including Kashgar. Also, Al Qaeda’s network apparently issued its first threat against China. Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) in Algeria reportedly called for vengeance against China’s interests in Africa.
At the end of July, Abdul Haq, TIP’s leader, issued a video in Uyghur and distributed by the
jihadist Al-Fajr Media Center in Arabic, that criticized the PRC for the events in Guangdong in
June and Urumqi in July, called for Uighurs to engage in jihad, and appealed to other Muslims to
target the PRC internationally. With a message from Abu-Yahya al-Libi on October 6, 2009, Al
Qaeda apparently issued its first message focused on “East Turkistan,” calling for education about
a “massacre” against Muslims in East Turkistan, a return to Islam, and use of weapons against
“invaders.” However, he did not specify TIP or attacks, while vaguely calling for China’s defeat.
In January 2010, TIP produced videos in Uyghur to claim credit for alleged actions in revenge
against China’s “bloody massacre” on July 5, 2009, and to call vaguely on Muslims in Xinjiang to
carry out jihad against China. In March 2010, TIP issued a statement to deny the PRC’s charges
that Uighur organizations linked to Rebiya Kadeer were responsible for violence in Xinjiang and
were linked to TIP. TIP denied religious or organizational links to nine democratic and peaceful
organizations such as the World Uyghur Congress, Uyghur American Association, and Uyghur
Human Rights Project. The TIP distinguished itself with radical, armed methods.
As discussed above concerning foreign deportations of Uighurs to China, the PRC influenced
Cambodia, despite U.S. and U.N. opposition, to hand over 20 Uighurs to China in December
2009. On June 24, 2010, just before the first anniversary of the unrest in July 2009, the PRC
Ministry of Public Security (MPS) announced that it uncovered a “terrorist cell” that had planned
attacks in 2008 and 2009, and caught and interrogated three alleged “terrorists” among 20 PRC
citizens deported from a neighboring country, in apparent reference to Cambodia. MPS said it
found that the three had sent e-mails to ETIM to seek help in their escape.
From http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RL33001.pdf
Congressional Resarch Service
U.S.-China Counterterrorism Cooperation:
Issues for U.S. Policy
Shirley A. Kan
Specialist in Asian Security Affairs
July 15, 2010
Uighur People in Xinjiang and “Terrorist” Organizations
Questions concern the U.S. stance on the PRC’s policy toward the Uighur (“wee-ger”) people in
the northwestern Xinjiang region that links them to what the PRC calls vaguely “East Turkistan
terrorist organizations.” Congress has concerns about the human rights of Uighurs. China has
accused the United States of “double standards” in disputes over how to handle the Uighurs.
Xinjiang has a history of unrest dating back before September 2001, particularly since the unrest
in 1990. The PRC charges Uighurs (or Uyghurs) with violent crimes and “terrorism,” but Uighurs
9
Department of State, press conference, Beijing, December 6, 2001.
10
Daniel Schearf, “U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigations Seeks Further Cooperation with China,” VOA, June 13, 2007.
11
Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs, “U.S.-East Asia Policy: Three Aspects,” Woodrow
Wilson Center, Washington, DC, December 11, 2002.
12
Author’s consultation; “Chinese Spymaster Complains About News Leak,” Washington Times, October 8, 2009. U.S.-China Counterterrorism Cooperation: Issues for U.S. Policy
Congressional Research Service 5
say they have suffered executions, torture, detentions, harassment, religious persecution, and
racial profiling. Human rights and Uighur groups have warned that, after the 9/11 attacks, the
PRC shifted to use the international counterterrorism campaign to justify the PRC’s long-term
cultural, religious, and political repression of Uighurs both in and outside of the PRC.
13
Since
2002, the PLA has conducted military exercises in Xinjiang with Central Asian countries and
Russia to fight what the PRC calls “East Turkistan terrorists” and what it combines as the threat
of “three evil forces” (separatism, extremism, and terrorism), conflating ethnic, religious, and
resistant/violent activities.
Critics say China compelled extraditions of Uighurs for execution and other punishment from
countries such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Nepal, and Pakistan, raising
questions about violations of the international legal principle of non-refoulement and the U.N.
Convention Against Torture. On December 19, 2009, Cambodia joined this list when it returned
20 Uighurs who fled Xinjiang after the unrest in July 2009. The State Department, up to even the
Secretary and Deputy Secretary, opposed Cambodia’s return of these “asylum seekers” and urged
China to ensure transparency, due process, and proper treatment for them. On April 1, 2010, the
State Department announced that on March 19, the United States told Cambodia of a suspension
in the shipment of 200 trucks and trailers that were to be provided as Excess Defense Articles. On
January 18, 2010, Burma reportedly deported 17 Uighurs and 1 Han to the PRC.
14
The Uighurs are an ethnically Turkish people who speak Uyghur (close to the Turkish language)
and practice a moderate form of Islam. They say that their population totals 10-15 million people.
Countering China’s colonial name of “Xinjiang,” meaning “new frontier,” the Uighurs call their
Central Asian homeland “East Turkistan.” The land makes up about one-sixth of today’s PRC.
In 1884, the Manchurian Qing empire based in northern China incorporated the area as a province
called “Xinjiang.” Later, it was briefly the Republic of East Turkistan in 1933 and in 1944, and a
Soviet satellite power from 1934 to 1941. In October 1949, the Communist Party of China set up
the PRC and deployed PLA troops to occupy and govern Xinjiang. In 1955, the PRC incorporated
the area as the “Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.”
15
In addition to PLA forces, the
paramilitary People’s Armed Police (PAP) has imposed controls. Unique to Xinjiang are the
paramilitary Production and Construction Corps (PCC) guarding, producing, and settling there;
the past nuclear weapon testing at Lop Nur; and routine executions for what Uighurs say are
political and religious dissent. Uighurs complain of forced assimilation, instead of “autonomy.”
Like Tibetans, Uighurs resent the Communist controls on religion, military deployments and
exercises, increasing immigration of ethnic Han (Chinese) people, and forced birth control. PRC
census data in 2003 report Uighurs at 8.4 million and Hans at 40% of Xinjiang’s population (up
from 6% in 1953). In the early 1990s, the breakup of the Soviet Union and independence of
neighboring Central Asian republics encouraged the Uighurs. In response to their dissent, the
PRC regime routinely has held huge public sentencing rallies and executions of Uighurs, forcing
thousands to watch (one in 1998 involved more than 20,000) and intimidating Uighurs by “killing
one to frighten thousands,” according to official PRC media.
As discussed above, Francis Taylor, the State Department’s Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism,
visited Beijing in December 2001. While he confirmed that there were “people from western
13
Amnesty International, “Uighurs Fleeing Persecution as China Wages its ‘War on Terror’,” July 7, 2004; Uyghur
Human Rights Project, “Persecution of Uyghurs in the Era of the ‘War on Terror’,” October 16, 2007.
14
Uyghur American Association, January 26, 2010, citing sina.com.
15
James Millward, Eurasian Crossroads: a History of Xinjiang, Columbia University, 2007. U.S.-China Counterterrorism Cooperation: Issues for U.S. Policy
Congressional Research Service 6
China that are involved in terrorist activities in Afghanistan,” he rejected the view that “all of the
people of western China are indeed terrorists” and urged Beijing to deal politically with their
“legitimate” social and economic challenges and not with counterterrorism means. Taylor stated
that the United States did not agree that “East Turkestan” forces were terrorists. He said that the
U.S. military captured some people from western China who were involved in Afghanistan with
Al Qaeda (the terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden).
Nonetheless, while in Beijing on August 26, 2002, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage
announced that, after months of bilateral discussions, he designated (on August 19) the East
Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist group that committed acts of violence
against unarmed civilians. China had issued a new report in January 2002, publicly charging
ETIM and other East Turkistan “terrorist” groups with attacks in the 1990s and linking them to
the international terrorism of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda.
16
The U.S. Embassy in Beijing
suggested that ETIM planned to attack the U.S. Embassy in Kyrgyzstan, but no attack took place.
The Kyrgyz Foreign Minister cited as suspicious that one Uighur was found with a map of
embassies in Bishkek.
17
Armitage called on China to respect the rights of Uighurs, but he also
said that Washington was grateful for China’s support at the United Nations Security Council.
18
Since then, the United States has refused to designate any other PRC-targeted and “East
Turkistan” or Uighur-related organization as a “terrorist organization.”
The State Department designated ETIM as a terrorist organization to freeze its assets under
Executive Order 13224 (“Blocking Property and Prohibiting Transactions With Persons Who
Commit, Threaten to Commit, or Support Terrorism”) but not as a Foreign Terrorist Organization
(FTO) (under the Immigration and Nationality Act). E.O. 13224 defines “terrorism” as “activity
that (1) involves a violent act or an act dangerous to human life, property, or infrastructure; and
(2) appears to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; to influence the policy of
a government by intimidation or coercion; or to affect the conduct of a government by mass
destruction, assassination, kidnapping, or hostage-taking.” At the same time, the United States,
PRC, Afghanistan, and Kyrgyzstan asked the United Nations to designate ETIM under U.N.
Security Council Resolutions 1267 and 1390 (to freeze assets of this group).
Later, in 2004, the Secretary of State also included ETIM in the “Terrorist Exclusion List (TEL)”
(to exclude certain foreign aliens from entering the United States), under Section 411 of the USA
PATRIOT Act of 2001 (P.L. 107-56).
In April 2009, the Treasury Department designated Abdul Haq (aka Abdul Heq), a Uighur born
in Xinjiang and leader of the East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP), another name for ETIM, as
an individual targeted under E.O. 13224. (Also see discussion of ETIM’s leadership below.) As
part of the justification for the designation, the Treasury Department declared that Haq had
directed in January 2008 the military commander of ETIP to attack cities in China holding the
Olympic Games but did not state that such attacks occurred. Also, the Treasury Department noted
that as of 2005 (four years prior), Haq was a member of Al Qaeda’s Shura Council (consultative
group).
19 Just preceding the U.S. designation, the U.N. Security Council acted under Resolution
16 PRC State Council, “‘East Turkistan’ Terrorist Forces Cannot Get Away with Impunity,” Xinhua, January 21, 2002.
17 Philip Pan, “U.S. Warns of Plot by Group in W. China,” Washington Post, August 29, 2002.
18 Quoted in “U.S. Adds East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) to Terror List,” Voice of America, August 26, 2002.
19 Department of the Treasury, April 20, and Federal Register, April 27, 2009. U.S.-China ounterterrorism Cooperation: Issues for U.S. Policy Congressional Research Service 7
1267 to identify Haq as a Uighur born in Xinjiang in 1971, the overall leader in Pakistan of
ETIM, and an individual associated with Al Qaeda. A newspaper reported from Islamabad in mid-
2009 that Abdul Haq was among Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders who met with the leader of the
Pakistani Taliban (a group formed in 2007), Baitullah Mehsud, about ceasing attacks in Pakistan
to focus on the U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan.
20
In March 2010, various PRC and other media reported that a drone attack killed Abdul Haq in February in North Waziristan, an anarchic border region of Pakistan. However, the PRC Foreign Ministry said it could not confirm the claim. The case against ETIM—including even its name—has been complicated, in part by questions of the credibility of PRC claims that link “terrorism” to repressed groups like Uighurs, Tibetans, and Falungong. Moreover, there have been challenges in verifying the authenticity of Internet messages and websites ostensibly belonging to the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), apparently another name for ETIM, with possibilities that the messages were created by such a terrorist group, fabricated by the PRC to justify its charges, or made as a deception by a third party. No group calling itself ETIM claimed responsibility for violent incidents in the 1990s. Although many Uighur or East Turkistan advocacy groups around the world have been reported for decades, the first available mention of ETIM was found in 2000. A Russian newspaper reported that Osama bin Laden convened a meeting in Afghanistan in 1999 that included the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) and ETIM, and he agreed to give them funds.
21 A Kyrgyz report in 2001 named ETIM as a militant Uighur organization with links to IMU and training in
Afghanistan and Pakistan, but did not mention any links to Al Qaeda.
22 Detailed information on
“three evil forces” written in August 2001 by a PRC scholar at the Xinjiang Academy of Social
Sciences did not name ETIM.
23 Before the PRC government’s public report of January 2002 on
“East Turkestan terrorists,” most were not aware of ETIM, and PRC officials or official media did
not mention ETIM until a Foreign Ministry news conference shortly after the September 2001
terrorist attacks in the United States. But even then, the PRC did not blame ETIM for any of
alleged incidents.
24In 2002, the leader of what China called ETIM, Hasan Mahsum, referred to his organization as
the East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP) and said that it had no “organizational links” with Al
Qaeda or Taliban (the extremist Islamic regime formed by former anti-Soviet Islamic fighters
called Mujahedin that took over Afghanistan in 1994-1996). Moreover, he claimed that ETIM did
not receive any financial aid from Osama bin Laden or Al Qaeda, although certain Uighur
individuals were involved with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
25 In November 2003, an organization calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP) posted on the Internet its denial of the U.S. and PRC designations of ETIM as a “terrorist organization.”
26 In December 2003, the PRC’s Ministry of Public Security issued its first list of wanted
“terrorists,” accusing four groups as “East Turkistan terrorist organizations” (ETIM, East
Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO), World Uyghur Youth Congress, and East Turkistan
Information Center) and 11 Uighurs as “terrorists,” with Hasan Mahsum at the top of the list.
27China demanded foreign assistance to target them. However, the list was intentionally misleading
or mistaken, because Mahsum was already dead. Confirming his operational area at the AfghanPakistani border, Pakistan’s military killed a multinational motley that included Mahsum on
October 2, 2003, in Pakistan’s South Waziristan tribal district.
28 In December 2003, the leadership of what it called TIP (having changed its name from ETIP in 1999 to be inclusive of non-Uighur Turkic peoples) posted on the Internet a eulogy of Mahsum. TIP reviewed his development of an organization in Afghanistan with the Taliban’s support but not contact with Al Qaeda. The TIP announced that former Military Affairs Commander Abdul Haq took over as the leader (amir).
29However, the PRC Ministry of Public Security’s list did not include Abdul Haq.
There was corroboration about their names. Hozaifa Parhat, one of the 22 Uighurs who were in
Afghanistan until late 2001 then ended up at Guantanamo by 2002 and whose name was placed in
the landmark court case on whether to release them, readily told his Combatant Status Review
Tribunal between 2004 and 2005 that he saw Mahsum who was the leader at the Uighur camp in
Afghanistan. Parhat and some other Uighur detainees also said that they heard of Abdul Haq.
In 2004, the deputy leader, Abudula Kariaji, said that ETIM had sent militants trained in small
arms and explosives to China and had met in 1999 with Osama bin Laden, who allowed some
Uighurs to train in Afghanistan but did not support their non-Arab cause of over-throwing China’s
rule.
30
In January 2008, Al Qaeda in Afghanistan issued a book on 120 “martyrs” that included
five who were Uighurs born in Xinjiang and fought with the Taliban in Afghanistan. One of them
was said to have died fighting U.S. military forces that launched attacks in 2001.
31
In 2003, Mehmet Emin Hazret, the leader of the East Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO),
another organization targeted by the PRC’s 2002 report as a “terrorist organization,” denied that
his group was responsible for violent incidents or had knowledge of an organization called ETIM,
although he knew of its alleged leaders who had been in PRC prisons. Hazret also denied that
ETLO had links to Al Qaeda. Nonetheless, he acknowledged that ETLO would inevitably set up a
military wing to target the PRC government for its oppression of the Uighur people.
32
The PRC’s own report of 2002 on “East Turkistan terrorists” claimed bombing incidents in
Xinjiang from 1991 to 1998, with none after that year. That report did not discuss bombings
outside of Xinjiang or call those other violent incidents “terrorism.” The report alleged that some
“terrorist” bombings occurred in February to April 1998 and injured 11 people. However, there
were no PRC or non-PRC media reports of such incidents in 1998. Moreover, Xinjiang’s Party
Secretary Wang Lequan and Chairman Abulahat Abdurixit said in Beijing in early 1998 and 1999
that there were no major violent incidents in 1998. In April 1998, a PRC official journal published
a comprehensive report on crime, cited bombings in 1997 but none in 1998, and stated that China
had no terrorist organizations and had not been penetrated by any international terrorist groups.
In May 1998, Xinjiang’s Vice Chairman Zhang Zhou told foreign reporters that there was an
explosion near Kashgar earlier that year, but no one was killed or wounded.
34
Before August 2008, the last bombing incident in Xinjiang reported by PRC and non-PRC media
occurred in 1997, when three bombs exploded in three buses in Urumqi on February 25, 1997,
while two other undetonated bombs were found on two buses. Many reports speculated that the
deadly attacks were timed for the mourning period of PRC paramount ruler Deng Xiaoping, who
died on February 19.
35
However, the likely critical factor was the preceding major turmoil and
crackdown in Xinjiang that occurred on February 5-6 in Yining (the western town Uighurs call
Gulja), involving Uighur protests against executions, security crackdown, and perhaps hundreds
killed and thousands arrested. Uighurs and Amnesty International called the incident the “Gulja
Massacre.”
36
Shortly after the incident on February 25, further bombings were reported in Urumqi
on March 1, in Yining on March 3, in Beijing on March 5 and March 7, near Guangzhou on May
12, and in Beijing on May 13; but the PRC did not label the incidents outside of Xinjiang as
“terrorist incidents.” The incidents in 1997 occurred after the PRC government launched in 1996
the national anti-crime “Strike Hard” campaign that was carried out in Xinjiang and Tibet with
crackdowns against those China called “separatists.”
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