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February 18, 2008
The Annual Terrorism Smackdown
There aren't many details or any pictures at this point (don't hold your breath), but the official Chinese press and the international news wires are reporting a recent raid on a "terrorist gang" in Urumqi:
Chinese security forces raided an alleged terrorist hide-out in the far western region of Xinjiang, killing two men and arresting 15, an official newspaper reported Monday...
Guns, homemade bombs, training materials and "extremist religious ideological materials" were confiscated in the Jan. 27 raid in the vast region's capital of Urumqi...
The report said the suspects were members of a terrorist network that established a cell in Urumqi and planned to set off explosions and launch other "violent terrorist incidents" on Feb. 5, the last business day before the start of the Lunar New Year holiday.
No such incidents were reported on that date, the anniversary of 1997 riots in which hundreds of Uighurs protested against Chinese rule for two days.
Five policmen were reported injured in the raid by "homemade grenades".
For those of you who need a refresher course, it was last January that China shut down another supposedly ETIM-linked terrorist cell in Xinjiang. That event left 18 terrorists and one policeman dead, and like the more recent raid was only announced by Chinese authorities weeks after the fact. (Another similarity is that not even a single photo has been released documenting evidence of either battle.)
As last month's raid purportedly took place in a busy residential area, you'd expect some local busybody to have heard or seen something. And you'd be wrong. As Xinhua put it: "The incident didn't disrupt the atmosphere of the Spring Festival in Urumqi."
2 killed in China police raid on alleged terrorist hide-out, report says
By CHRISTOPHER BODEEN
Associated Press Reporter
18 February 2008
(c) 2008. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
BEIJING (AP) - Chinese security forces raided an alleged terrorist hide-out in the far western region of Xinjiang, killing two men and arresting 15, an official newspaper reported Monday.
The report did not name the group involved. For years, authorities have been battling a low-intensity separatist movement among Xinjiang's Uighurs, a Turkic Muslim people culturally and ethnically distinct from China's Han majority.
Guns, homemade bombs, training materials and "extremist religious ideological materials" were confiscated in the Jan. 27 raid in the vast region's capital of Urumqi, reported the Global Times, a newspaper published by the Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily.
The report said the suspects were members of a terrorist network that established a cell in Urumqi and planned to set off explosions and launch other "violent terrorist incidents" on Feb. 5, the last business day before the start of the Lunar New Year holiday.
No such incidents were reported on that date, the anniversary of 1997 riots in which hundreds of Uighurs protested against Chinese rule for two days.
People's Armed Police anti-terror forces surrounded the hide-out and demanded that those inside surrender, the report said. Fighting broke out when they refused and several police were injured, but none killed, according to the report.
A woman at the Urumqi city government's propaganda office confirmed the reported raid but said she had no details. She refused to give reporters her name, as is common among Chinese bureaucrats.
A man who answered the phone at the Xinjiang Public Security Bureau's publicity department referred questions to the Ministry of Public Security, where a spokesman asked for written questions to be submitted by fax.
Residents of the neighborhood where the raid reportedly took place said they had heard of it but had no direct knowledge of what happened.
China has ratcheted up anti-terror preparations ahead of the Beijing Summer Olympic Games in August. The nation's top police official last year labeled terrorism the biggest threat facing the event.
Terrorism experts say the threat is relatively low, however, given China's tight social controls. Still, they warn that Beijing's counterterrorism capabilities are weak, especially when it comes to groups based outside the country.
China says its main terror threat comes from an Uighur separatist group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, a group believed to have not more than a few dozen members. East Turkestan is another name for Xinjiang.
Chinese forces reported raiding an ETIM training camp last year and killing 18 militants allegedly linked to al-Qaida, and to Afghanistan's former rulers, the Taliban.
Chinese police kill two terrorists, arrest 15 others
Xinhua/chinadaily.com.cn
Updated: 2008-02-18 19:46
URUMQI - Chinese police shut down a terrorist gang last month in Urumqi, capital of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, killing two persons and arresting 15 others, local sources said on Monday.
Five policemen were injured, none of them deadly, during the raid on January 27 when three homemade grenades were thrown toward them, the sources said.
The arrest was made in one of the major neighbourhoods in the city, according to www.huanqiu.com.
"The incident didn't disrupt the atmosphere of the Spring Festival in Urumqi," the website said.
posted February 18, 2008 at 11:09 PM unofficial Xinjiang time | HaoHao This!
Comments
Sounds like China is being more forthcoming about efforts against terrorism than the US government is.
Posted by: cph at February 19, 2008 01:01 AM
Wait...so are the separatists pirates or something?
Posted by: Tiako at February 19, 2008 04:06 AM
sounds like those terrorists were 'harmonized'.
Posted by: Derrick at February 19, 2008 04:26 AM
@Tiako: C'mon, you know the whole reason I keep this site going is to make cheeky little graphics. Pirates, terrorists... what's the difference?
Posted by: michael at February 19, 2008 08:34 AM
Uyghur will outlast ugly china.
Posted by: eatxinkchink at February 19, 2008 09:28 AM
Ugly Chink always outlast savage for sure. History has proven it again and again.
Some countries with trong military have often end up as losers. Yet, China often always ends up on winner side of big conflict with strong military. This reflects political savy.
Savage can only dream on.
Posted by: IC at February 19, 2008 10:11 PM
I am a chink, damn proud of it!
Posted by: proudchink at February 19, 2008 10:14 PM
@IC--Which conflicts? I'm assuming you only mean during the Red Dynasty, and there haven't really been any "big conflicts". If you mean throughout history, well, China doesn't really have history on its side there.
@michael--This one is actually one of my favorite graphics in a while, but when you set yourself up like that...
Posted by: Tiako at February 20, 2008 02:51 AM
I hope Chinese communists try your best, but it is useless! Wang Le Quan general secretary of communist party in Xinajiang, said "the problem in Xinjiang won't finish" in his speech in a TV of Hong Kong. You can kill one or two million people of a nationality but, how can you control a nation with at least 8 million population?
Zuo Zong Tang, General of Qing Empire of China, said that he killed all of the Uyghurs who don't want to be Chinese citizen, in end of 1880s. But after this, we saw indipendent East Turkistan Republic twice in the history. more than 100 times protest or demonstrations since 1949. the last event has taken place just 2 weeks ago, how can Chinese government still say that China is safty foriegn companies?
Posted by: Mike at February 21, 2008 08:59 AM
Anyone who has studied terrorism in China will know that EMIT is not an exclusive terror group but an umbrella name Chinese authorities use to justify their battle against their own insecurities, sorry security issues. In 2002 PRC released a whitepaper and such was the ambiguity that all of the 162 people reported killed by terrorist groups (plural) were mistakenly attributed to EMIT. China was not in a hurry to correct this whoopsy. I am neither pro-China or pro-Uighur. Thus, I am suspicious of EMIT reports and I am beginning to form the opinion that China needs terrorism more than the terrorists in Xinjiang do…
Posted by: jimba at February 21, 2008 03:04 PM
Games attack planned
20 February 2008
MX (Brisbane)
Copyright 2008 News Ltd. All Rights Reserved
CHINA SEPARATISTS
Militants in northwestern China are plotting attacks on the Beijing Olympic Games, a Chinese official said today, a day after the Government released details of a major counter-terrorist operation in the region last month.
Foreign ministry official Niu Qingbao said "Eastern Turkestan terrorists'' had planned attacks on Chinese institutions overseas, as well as inside the country.
"More recently, they are still plotting terrorist attacks on the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games,'' Niu told a security conference.
He was referring to Uighur separatists in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, who are pressing for greater autonomy and a loosening of restrictions on Muslim religious worship.
Xinjiang is home to eight million Uighurs, a Turkic, mainly Muslim people.
Beijing has accused Uighur militants of staging a series of terrorist attacks on civilians since the 1990s.
Chinese news agency Xinhua said on Monday Chinese soldiers would be given extensive counter-terrorism training.
Posted by: michael at February 22, 2008 10:07 AM
Well, the funny thing is I used to think of xinjiang as a very dangrous place. Your people who started to use internet after 1997 might remember there were tons of urban mythes about xinjiang. Then I rolled into college and got the chance to have several mates from xinjiang. It turned out it's merely another poor province that's alienated by rumur-smithes.
Posted by: Richard at February 26, 2008 12:44 PM
I don't believe in any news that is provided by Chinese communist government. China is a big liar and human rights abuser. They illegally invaded peaceful nation like Tibet, inner mongolia, east turkistan and now in turn they are facing a frustrated feelings of those innocent people. They must seek justice.
Posted by: ihatechink at March 10, 2008 02:32 AM