Uygur terror group smashed in raids

AFP, Hong Kong iMail, Tuesday 23 January 2001

BEIJING: Authorities have smashed an armed Islamic group responsible for a wave of terrorist attacks in the troubled northwestern region of Xinjiang, state media claimed yesterday.

In a separate report, Amnesty International said two men accused of terrorist offences in Xinjiang had been executed after grossly unfair judicial proceedings based on confessions extracted through torture.

The People's Court Daily said a group of separatists had been tried at a court in the town of Korla in Xinjiang recently and their leader, Alerken Abula, sentenced to death.

The newspaper said Abula had set up a group in 1993 that came to be known as the Eastern Turkestan Islamic Party of God, and it had recruited 113 members across Xinjiang.

The report said the group bought explosives and weapons, as well as a printing press, and was responsible for a large number of terrorist actions. It did not give details.

It said the group's aim was to set up an Islamic state in Xinjiang, a majority Muslim region, and that a hit list of 32 mosque officials with allegiance to the government in Beijing had been uncovered.

The report said Abula and several accomplices had been arrested and had confessed under police interrogation.

Xinjiang separatists, mainly ethnic Uygur Muslims, have been involved in frequent and bloody clashes with the authorities in recent years.

Uygurs, who speak a Turkic language and make up a large part of Xinjiang's population, have been linked to deadly bombings as well as riots.

The most serious clashes took place in January 1997 in the frontier town of Yining, which according to independent sources left as many as 100 dead.

The authorities have launched a major crackdown on separatism in Xinjiang since the riots, recruiting the help of neighbouring central Asian republics, and announcing scores of executions.

Amnesty said the latest executions were carried out on Tuesday in Yining.

The international rights watchdog said Jur'at Nuri, 27, and Abduhalik Abdureshit, 24, had been sentenced to death in July 1999 on charges of splittism and illegally carrying and keeping arms, ammunition and explosives.

The group said: Official documentation received by Amnesty International shows that the accusations against the men were largely unfounded, and that the sentences were passed after grossly unfair judicial proceedings, based on confessions extracted under torture.

At the trial Abduhalik Abdureshit is reported to have said that anybody who had been tortured as severely as he had would have confessed to anything, and that not even a dog could tolerate the torture he had endured.

15 January 2001 / 01:05 AM