Rival claims over Xinjiang killings
The Standard, 30 December 2011
Beijing said a police operation to free hostages in the restive Xinjiang region left seven “terrorists” dead, but an exile group said the incident was the fallout of a desperate protest by local Uygurs.
The incident is the latest reported violent confrontation in Xinjiang – home to roughly nine million Turkic-speaking Uygurs who have long bristled under Han rule – since three deadly attacks in July left dozens dead.
The Xinjiang government said on its official microblog account that a “violent terrorist group” kidnapped two people in the northwestern region’s remote Pishan county late Wednesday night, prompting a standoff with police.
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During the standoff, the kidnappers killed one officer and wounded another.
Police opened fire and killed seven of the suspects, and wounded and arrested four others.
The two hostages were rescued, the microblog said, but did not mention whether the kidnappers were Uygurs.
But a spokesman for exile group World Uygur Congress described the incident as a protest by local Uygurs, amid mounting discontent over a police crackdown and religious repression.
Dilxat Raxit said seven Uygurs were “publicly” shot dead, three seriously wounded, and another four lightly hurt, and added authorities were confiscating people’s mobile phones yesterday.
“The government recently started a `strike hard’ campaign that resulted in the disappearances of several people,” he said.
“They were taken away by armed forces, who refused to say where they were. The local government has also restricted religious activities.”
Pishan police and the Xinjiang government refused to comment.
Xinjiang has been the scene of sporadic bouts of violence, much of it blamed by Beijing on the “three forces” of extremism, separatism and terrorism.
But some experts doubt terror cells operate in Xinjiang, where Uygurs practice a moderate form of Islam.
They say the violence stems from discontent, as many Uygurs accuse the authorities of religious and political oppression, and resent the sustained influx of the majority Han.
Xinhua News Agency told of speculation that Wednesday’s incident was linked to “a surge in religious extremism in the Muslim ethnic Uygur area that borders the Kashmir region controlled by Pakistan and India,” with one man murdered in Pishan earlier this month for drinking alcohol – taboo to Muslims.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE