- Title: CHINA/JAPAN: Grenade attack kills 16 in west China ahead of Games
- Date: 4th August 2008
- Summary: UIGHUR CHILDREN PLAYING
- Embargoed: 19th August 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement,Domestic Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAD2OH2CB5JBGFXEF0PET0J1IZM
- Story Text: Assailants with grenades kill 16 police in China's western Xinjiang region four days ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games.
Attackers with home-made bombs and knives killed 16 police in a restive western region of China on Monday (August 4), state media said, in just the sort of violence Beijing had hoped to avoid four days before the Olympics.
The attack, which occurred about 4,000 km (2,500 miles) from the capital in the old Silk Road city of Kashgar, was a reminder of internal tensions in China, especially in its ethnically mixed and largely Muslim west.
Police said they had information separatists from the East Turkestan Islamic Movement had been planning attacks in the run-up to the Games.
The state-run Xinhua news agency said two assailants drove a truck towards exercising border police officers in Kashgar, home of many Uighur people resentful of Chinese control on the region.
Xinjiang's largely Muslim Uighurs have been a focus of China's stringent nationwide security in the run-up to the Games. Officials have said militants seeking an independent "East Turkestan" homeland are among the biggest threats.
Police "got clues suggesting that the 'East Turkestan Islamic Movement' planned to make attacks during August 1-8, just ahead of the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing," Xinhua reported.
There was no video footage of the incident or the aftermath, but China's state central television reported the attack on a news bulletin.
A Japanese representative of Uighur's democratisation organisation said on Monday the attack would not be an organised one.
Speaking at the World Uighur Congress in Japan, the Japanese representative Ilham Mahmut said his organisation is promoting liberation through words not violence, and that the Kashgar attack was more likely to be a personal one.
"I guess the current situation in Uighur is too strict to conduct an organised act. How can you do that when you cannot trust your own brother to just express a political view? However I cannot deny the possibility that some people who could not put up with the current oppression might have done it personally," he said.
Many people in Beijing had no knowledge of the attack and said they believed the capital city was safe.
"As far as I know, the security measures for the Olympic Games are very comprehensive. I have read a lot about this in the newspapers," said 28-year-old resident Zhang Liang.
"I think we should have faith in our government. I believe the government will hold the Olympic Games very successfully," resident Wang Meng added.
Many Uighurs resent Chinese controls on religion and of the expanding ethnic Han Chinese presence in Xinjiang, a region rich in natural gas. Some Uighur groups seek an independent homeland, and China has said militants have forged ties with al Qaeda, Hizb ut-Tahrir and other violent groups.
Kashgar is a heavily Muslim market city of some 200,000 in Xinjiang's south. The Olympic relay torch passed through there in June under intense security.
China has said it foiled plots targeting the Olympics and in the first six months of the year police detained dozens of people in Xinjiang for plotting to sabotage the Games, according to state media.
In March, authorities said they foiled an attempted attack onboard a flight to Beijing from Urumqi, the regional capital of Xinjiang.
But Beijing also recently denied claims by a group calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party that it set off a series of bus bombings around the country. Xinjiang's Kashgar was part of the route for the Olympic torch run last month.
A 100,000-strong security force is on standby ahead of Friday's (August 8) opening ceremony and there is a strong sense of excitement in the air.
Human rights critics and exiled Uighurs have said Beijing has exaggerated the threat of violence in Xinjiang and stirred discontent by extending the Han Chinese presence there. Uighurs now make up slightly less than half of Xinjiang's 20 million people, according to official statistics. - Copyright Holder: FILE REUTERS (CAN SELL)
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