Posted on 08/26/2005 9:15:55 AM PDT by neverdem
BEIJING (Reuters) - Seventeen Chinese have been charged with running guns from Pakistan in one of the largest arms-smuggling cases in China's history, state media said on Thursday.
The defendants, who went on trial on Tuesday in the remote western province of Qinghai, neighbouring Tibet, are accused of buying more than 900 guns and 1,500 gun accessories in Pakistan, the China Daily said.
They were sold in Kashgar, in China's restive far-western region of Xinjiang, and in Xining, capital of Qinghai, the China Daily reported.
It was not clear whether the guns were headed for Muslim separatists in Xinjiang, who have been fighting for decades for an independent "East Turkestan" homeland and whom Beijing calls terrorists, or to meet demand amid a growing wave of violent crime that has come with China's economic reforms.
Privately owned firearms and explosives are illegal in China but are still made in many underground workshops.
China has long been Pakistan's main source in legitimate arms trade and the two sides are producing a fighter aircraft together.
The trial in Qinghai was scheduled to finish on Saturday and sentences should be passed within two weeks, the report said. Some defendants could face the death penalty, it said.
Chinese newspapers, unrestrained by defamation and contempt of court laws common in the West, often assume the guilt of a defendant before a verdict has been announced.
Good news! Let's hope China will suffer a civil war with the collapse of the Communist government.
ping
Dude.... are you telling me that the Chinese don't want an armed citizenry?
Liberals take note.
Nah, these are IslamoNazis. I hope the Chinese crush them into dust. (Which they will).
Love it. If the Chinese get PO'ed at Islamabad for not controlling these jihadis, I mean, Kashmir is OK, Indians dying, Afghanistan, Afghanis, ditto and as a bonus, Americans, too, but, running guns in Xinjiang is a big no-no, watch the Chinese pick up Osama!
I wouldn't be suprised if Osama was suddenly kidnapped from his hideout by Commie Agents in his cave and tortured, Given a cold shower with the hoses and then commies giving him cuts and rubbing salt all over the cuts.
...can't have those uppity citizens angry at being forced into squalid sweatshops by Beijing, can we?
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