14 Moslem insurgents threaten reprisals against Chinese engineers in Africa for Uighur repression

RESENT

Islamic parties' championing of the Uighurs of Xinjiang could make them "meat in the sandwich" between China and the Islamic bloc.

This development puts to rest Samuel Huntington's envisaged alliance betwen China and Islam in his book The Clash of Civilizations.

(1) China demands Turkish PM retract his accusation of genocide against Uighurs
(2) Moslem insurgents threaten reprisals against Chinese engineers in Africa for Uighur repression
(3) Uighur workers forcibly moved to coastal factories
(4) Beijing professor held for Urumqi blog: watchdog
(5) Chinese economist missing, apparently detained
(6) Chinese intellectuals call for release of Uighur

(1) China demands Turkish PM retract his accusation of genocide against Uighurs

From: Tata Soria <freeinformation.clearinghouse@gmail.com>  Date: 15.07.2009 12:32 PM

China demands Turkish retraction

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/8149379.stm

Page last updated at 14:45 GMT, Tuesday, 14 July 2009 15:45 UK

China has demanded that Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan retract his accusation that Beijing practised genocide against ethnic Uighurs.

Mr Erdogan made the comments after riots in the Muslim Uighur heartland of Xinjiang in which 184 people died. ...

China's rejection of Mr Erdogan's remarks came in an editorial headlined "Don't twist facts" in the English-language newspaper China Daily.

It said the fact that 137 of the 184 victims of the 5 July unrest were Han Chinese "speaks volumes for the nature of the event".

The newspaper urged Mr Erdogan to "take back his remarks... which constitute interference in China's internal affairs", describing his comments as "irresponsible and groundless".

Mr Erdogan made the controversial comments last Friday, telling NTV television: "The incidents in China are, simply put, a genocide. There's no point in interpreting this otherwise."

He called on Chinese authorities to intervene to prevent more deaths.

Turkey is secular but the population is predominantly Muslim and it shares linguistic and religious links with the Uighurs.

(2) Moslem insurgents threaten reprisals against Chinese engineers in Africa for Uighur repression

Al Qaeda vows revenge on China after riots

Jane Macartney in Beijing

July 14, 2009

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/china/article6704812.ece

Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network has taken up the cause of China’s Muslim Uighur minority with a pledge to attack Chinese workers in northwestern Africa in retaliation for mistreatment by Beijing of its largest Muslim minority.

Al-Qaeda's Algerian-based offshoot, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has issued the call for vengeance, according to the South China Morning Post which quoted an intelligence report from London-based risk analysis firm Stirling Assynt.  ...

The report said: “The general situation of China's Muslims has resonated amongst the global jihadist community. There is an increasing amount of chatter ... among jihadists who claim they want to see action against China. Some of these individuals have been actively seeking information on China's interests in the Muslim world, which they could use for targeting purposes."

The report is based on information from people who have seen the instruction from AQIM, the agency said.

The assessment comes amid rising fears among Western counter-terrorism officials that AQIM turned a deadly new corner in recent weeks, with a string of fatal attacks on foreigners. Its numbers appeared to have been buoyed by the return of its fighters from Iraqi battlefields, US officials have said.

Three weeks ago, AQIM attacked an Algerian security convoy protecting Chinese engineers on a motorway project, killing 24 paramilitary police. While the Chinese were not injured and were not targeted, the assessment notes: "Future attacks of this kind are likely to target security forces and Chinese engineers alike." ... ==

Al-Qaeda vows revenge on China over Uighur deaths

Al-Qaeda's North African wing has threatened to target Chinese workers in Africa in revenge for the deaths of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang, according to a risk analysis company.

By Malcolm Moore in Shanghai
Published: 5:35AM BST 14 Jul 2009

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/5822791/Al-Qaeda-vows-revenge-on-China-over-Uighur-deaths.html

The threat came in the wake of race riots in far West China which claimed the lives of at least 136 Han Chinese and 46 Uighurs.

Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) said it would target the 50,000 Chinese who are working in Algeria and launch attacks against other Chinese projects in Northern Africa, said Stirling Assynt, which is based in London.

"This threat should be taken seriously," it said, adding that three weeks ago the group had ambushed a convoy of Algerian security forces who were protecting Chinese engineers, killing 24 Algerians. "Future attacks of this kind are likely to target security forces and Chinese engineers alike."

China has repeatedly linked Uighur separatist groups to Al-Qaeda, but this is the first time that the terrorist network has made a direct threat against China or its overseas projects.

Violence in Urumqi flared up again on Monday as Chinese police shot and killed two Uighur men armed with knives and sticks who were attacking another Uighur man, according to an official statement.

Uighur activists have claimed the true number of Uighur casualties has been understated by the Chinese government.

Stirling Assynt said that although AQIM was the first arm to target China, "others are likely to follow". It said that it had monitored an increase in internet "chatter" among possible jihadists about the need to "avenge the perceived injustices in Xinjiang."

"Some of these individuals have been actively seeking information on China's interests in the Muslim world which they could use for targeting purposes," Stirling Assynt said, adding that locations included North Africa, Sudan, Pakistan and Yemen.

Two extremist web sites affiliated with Al-Qaeda noted that large numbers of Chinese work in Saudi Arabia and the Middle East. "Chop off their heads at their workplaces or in their homes to tell them that the time of enslaving Muslims has gone," read one posting.

However, the assessment does not link Uighur groups to Al-Qaeda and suggests it is unlikely that the Al-Qaeda leadership would stage attacks inside China.

Stirling Assynt was founded by Karl Barclay, the former head of global security for HSBC.

(3) Uighur workers forcibly moved to coastal factories

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/14/AR2009071403321.html

China Unrest Tied To Labor Program
Uighurs Sent to Work in Other Regions

By Ariana Eunjung Cha

Washington Post Foreign Service

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

URUMQI, China -- When the local government began recruiting young Muslim Uighurs in this far western region for jobs at the Xuri Toy Factory in the country's booming coastal region, the response was mixed.

Some, lured by the eye-popping salaries and benefits, eagerly signed up.

But others, like Safyden's 21-year-old sister, were wary. She was uneasy, relatives said, about being so far from her family and living in a Han Chinese-dominated environment so culturally, religiously and physically different from what she was accustomed to. It wasn't until a local official threatened to fine her family 2,000 yuan, or about $300, if she didn't go that she reluctantly packed her bags this spring for a job at the factory in Shaoguan, 2,000 miles away in the heart of China's southern manufacturing belt.

The origins of last week's ethnically charged riots in Urumqi, the capital of China's Xinjiang region, can be traced to a labor export program that led to the sudden integration of the Xuri Toy Factory and other companies in cities throughout China.

Uighur protesters who marched into Urumqi's main bazaar on July 5 were demanding a full investigation into a brawl at the toy factory between Han and Uighur workers that left two Uighurs dead. The protest, for reasons that still aren't clear, spun out of control. Through the night, Uighur demonstrators clashed with police and Han Chinese bystanders, leaving 184 people dead and more than 1,680 injured in one of the bloodiest clashes in the country's modern history. Two Uighurs were shot dead by police Monday, and tensions remain palpable.

"I really worry about her very much," Safyden, 29, said of his sister, whom he did not want named because he fears for her safety. "The government should send them back. What if new conflicts happen between Uighurs and Han? The Uighurs will be beaten to death."

Both Han Chinese, who make up more than 90 percent of the country's population and dominate China's politics and economy, and Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking minority living primarily in China's far west, say anger has been simmering for decades.

By moving Uighur workers to factories outside Xinjiang and placing Han-run factories in Xinjiang, Chinese officials say, authorities are trying to elevate the economic status of Uighurs whose wages have lagged behind the nationwide average. But some Han Chinese have come to resent these policies, which they call favoritism, and some Uighurs complain that the assimilation efforts go too far. Uighurs say that their language is being phased out of schools, that in some circumstances they cannot sport beards, wear head scarves or fast as dictated by Islamic tradition, and that they are discriminated against for private and government jobs.

Xinjiang's labor export program, which began in 2002 and has since sent tens of thousands of Uighurs from poor villages to wealthier cities, was supposed to bring the two groups together so they could better interact with and understand each other. The Uighur workers are lured with salaries two or three times what they could earn in their home towns picking cotton, as well as benefits such as training on manufacturing equipment, Mandarin language classes and free medical checkups.

Several Uighur workers said that they have prospered under the program and that they were treated well by their Han bosses and co-workers. Others, however, alleged that the program had become coercive.

In the villages around the city of Kashgar, where many of the workers from the Xuri factory originated, residents said each family was forced to send at least one child to the program -- or pay a hefty fine.

"Since people are poor in my home town, they cannot afford such big money. So they have to send their children out," said Merzada, a 20-year-old who just graduated from high school, and who, like all the Uighurs interviewed, spoke on the condition that a surname not be used.

(4) Beijing professor held for Urumqi blog: watchdog

July 10, 2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jS1MF3UjWasnDWeCkublCndlFSFg

BEIJING (AFP) — Chinese authorities arrested a university economics professor in Beijing after he posted reports about the riots in Xinjiang on his website, an international media watchdog said.

Ilham Tohti, an ethnic Uighur, was arrested after Xinjiang authorities named his blog "Uighur Online" on national television, calling it an outlet used to organise Sunday's protests in Urumqi, Reporters Without Borders said.

"The crackdown is not limited to Xinjiang," the media rights group said in a statement. "The authorities have arrested an independent writer who was just posting reports on his blog."

The Public Security Bureau would not confirm the arrest when contacted by AFP. Officials at Minzu University of China in Beijing, where he teaches, were not immediately available for comment.

Authorities had previously pressured Tohti to stop posting blogs in March and June, the statement said.

The Public Security Bureau warned him last month his postings exploring relations between ethnic Han Chinese and Uighurs, the ethnic majority in the Xinjiang region, violated the law, the statement said.

"Under the laws in force in China, certain subjects of conversation cannot be tolerated," the statement said, quoting a notice Tohti received.

Tohti's Chinese-language website, www.uighurbiz.net, was inaccessible in China on Thursday afternoon, joining Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and a range of sites that were blocked after providing independent updates on the riots.

Chinese authorities say at least 156 people were killed in riots following a protest in Urumqi Sunday. Sporadic violence continued in the city through Wednesday.

Copyright © 2009 AFP. All rights reserved.

(5) Chinese economist missing, apparently detained

By ALEXA OLESEN

July 10, 2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hFBUw2BkdzlVzXSbSY26HGChVcegD99AT7U80

BEIJING (AP) — An outspoken economist who championed rights for fellow Uighurs in his native Xinjiang has disappeared, presumably detained by police who questioned him after deadly ethnic violence in China's restive far west.

A friend said Thursday that Ilham Tohti called him early Wednesday and told him he received formal notice that he would be detained. The friend, Huang Zhangjin, said efforts to reach Tohti since have failed.

Tohti's disappearance comes just days after Xinjiang's Beijing-installed governor accused a Web site founded by the 39-year-old professor of stirring up hostilities that led to the bloody riot Sunday in Urumqi, Xinjiang's capital. At least 156 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured.

The economics department at Central Nationalities University in Beijing, where Tohti worked, could not confirm his whereabouts. Beijing police did not immediately respond to a faxed request for confirmation, and a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said he was not familiar with the case.

The Associated Press reached Tohti by telephone Monday and Tuesday, but he declined comment because he was being questioned by officials, he said.

"I've got the formal notice, and this is probably the last time you will hear my voice on the telephone,'" Huang quoted his friend as saying just after midnight Wednesday. He added that the allegations against him were false, Huang said.

"I didn't incite violence," Tohti told Huang. "Violence is not good for any ethnic group."

In a televised speech Monday, Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri said an exiled Uighur activist in the United States had called people in China to stir up the violence that erupted Sunday and that Uighurbiz and another popular Web site, Diyarim.com, "were used to orchestrate the incitement and spread propaganda." All have denied the allegation.

Widely considered a moderate voice, Tohti had praised China's policies for Xinjiang. His Web site, http://www.uighurbiz.net, became a lively forum for many controversial issues about Chinese rule in Xinjiang.

Dru Gladney, an expert on Uighurs at the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College in California, said he never met Tohti, but based on his online essays and press interviews he appears to be "very well educated, very articulate, very thoughtful, certainly not inspired by radical Islam."

He's "someone who really just wanted greater autonomy and social justice for his people," Gladney said.

In recent months, Tohti had became more outspoken about the problems Uighurs were facing and what he called the region's failure to implement central government policies effectively.

While on an academic visit to France in February, Tohti told a French radio station that Uighur detainees about to be freed from the Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba should not return to China because they would likely face harsh punishment despite being cleared of wrongdoing by U.S. officials.

He told U.S.-funded Radio Free Asia in May that "Xinjiang's situation is the worst of the worst — compared with other regions of China."

During a separate interview with Radio Free Asia in March, Tohti said Bekri, the Xinjiang governor, was not qualified for his post and added: "He doesn't care about Uighurs."

Hailaite Niyaze, a journalist based in Urumqi and regular contributor to Uighurbiz, said that he believes Tohti "crossed the line" with his comments on Bekri.

"When he voiced this opinion ... I told him to stop and not to talk about it anymore," Niyaze said. "But he wouldn't listen."

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

(6) Chinese intellectuals call for release of Uighur

July 14, 2009

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hFBUw2BkdzlVzXSbSY26HGChVcegD99E0UFO0

BEIJING (AP) — More than 100 Chinese writers and intellectuals have signed a letter calling for the release of Ilham Tohti, an outspoken Uighur economist who disappeared from his Beijing home last week and has apparently been detained.

Tohti had in recent months sharpened his critique of problems in China's far west region of Xinjiang, where ethnic violence in the capital Urumqi earlier this month left 184 dead and 1,680 wounded.

"Professor Ilham Tohti is a Uighur intellectual who devoted himself to friendship between ethnic groups and eradicating conflicts between them. He should not be taken as a criminal," said the letter, which demanded information about his case and was posted online Monday.

"If they've started legal proceedings toward Ilham Tohti, they must gain trust from the people through transparency, and especially gain trust from the Uighur people," the letter said.

The letter said the Web site that Tohti founded, Uighurbiz.cn, a Chinese-language Web site that became a lively forum about Uighur life and views, was an important site for dialogue between Han Chinese and Uighurs.

The letter was signed by Chinese authors, including Wang Lixiong, a Chinese democracy activist, and posted on the international version of the blogging Web portal Bullog, at bullogger.com.

"The signing is continuing and it is gathering more signatures," said Woeser, a Beijing-based Tibetan writer and blogger who signed the letter.

It urged the Chinese government to reflect on its whether its own mistakes caused the unrest in Xinjiang and the anti-government riots last year Lhasa and other Tibetan communities.

Xinjiang Governor Nur Bekri in a televised speech July 6 accused Tohti's Web site and another popular one of helping "to orchestrate the incitement and spread propaganda," a day after Sunday's peaceful protest by Uighurs dissolved into a riot.

Tohti, 39, disappeared from his Beijing home last week, but called a friend just after midnight Wednesday to say he would be detained.

A spokesman for the Beijing Public Security Bureau said he did not have any information on the case.

Tohti's academic work had begun to focus on how Chinese policies that encourage Han Chinese to move into

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.