|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
ping to August!
NET...
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=frwn
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=gwot
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=wot
http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/index.cfm?page=Captured
#
http://www.rewardsforjustice.net/english/index.cfm?page=Wanted_Terrorist
http://www.rewardsforjustice.net
#
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=globaljihad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jihad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jihadpropaganda
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jihadmedia
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jihadvideos
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jihadtv
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=jihadcds
#
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=internet
http://www.memriiwmp.org/
http://www.internet-haganah.com/haganah/internet.html
#
#
http://www.memri.org/jihad.html
http://www.memritv.org
http://www.thememriblog.org/
#
http://www.truthusa.com/september12.html
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001: Before, During and After
http://www.truthusa.com/911news.html
http://www.truthusa.com/911news2.html
http://www.truthusa.com/911news3.html
http://www.truthusa.com/911.html
#
http://www.internet-haganah.com
http://www.sofir.org
http://sfir-arabicsource.blogspot.com/
#
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il
http://www.infolive.tv
#
http://www.truthusa.com/IRAN.html
http://www.memri.org/iran.html
http://thememriblog.org/iran
http://www.terrorism-info.org.il/site/html/search.asp?isSearch=yes&isT8=yes&searchText=T90&pid=108&sid=13&preview=
#
http://www.truthusa.com/MoreThanCartoons.html
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=cartoonjihad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=fitna
#
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=oic
#
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=legaljihad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=litigationjihad
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=freespeech
#
http://www.persecution.org
http://www.memri.org/antisemitism.html
.
NORTH AMERICA
Man facing terrorism charges headed to circuit court
http://www.hometownlife.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080810/NEWS03/808100465
By TIFFANY L. PARKS OBSERVER Staff Writer
A Canton man facing five felony charges stemming from his alleged attempt to blow up a railroad overpass was in court briefly Friday morning to waive his preliminary examination.
Ian Michael Douglas, 18, dressed in Wayne County inmate clothing, decided to bypass his exam and will be arraigned Aug. 22 in Third Circuit Court on five charges: false report or threat of terrorism, a 20-year felony; placing explosives near property, a 15-year felony; two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, each a four-year felony; and felony firearm, a two-year felony.
Douglas, who is being held on a $500,000 cash bond, is accused of pointing a 12-gauge shotgun at two people at a railroad overpass near Haggerty Road and I-275 during the early morning hours of July 27. The two later reported that Douglas spoke of derailing a train and ignited a pipe bomb on the ground under the overpass.
The explosive caused no damage.
Upon arresting him at his Kaiser Street residence, police say they found bomb-making materials, such as pipes and powders.
As the Starkweather Educational Center student exited the courtroom Friday, Douglas’ supporters gave him a few words of encouragement.
A female said “I love you,” and a man offered, “Stay strong, bro.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Man’s lawyer asks for no jail: A York County native awaits sentencing after pleading guilty to supporting Hamas.
http://ydr.inyork.com/ci_10153154
By NICHOLE DOBO Daily Record/Sunday News :Article Last Updated: 08/10/2008 05:15:36 AM EDT
The lawyers for a 33-year-old York County man charged with aiding a terrorist group are asking the judge to sentence him lightly.
Richard David Hupper, a Leader Heights, York Township, native, is in a Florida federal prison awaiting his sentencing Wednesday.
“At this point in his life, his main goal is to return to his family and be a productive member of the community,” according to the court documents requesting leniency.
Hupper’s lawyer requests that he be sentenced to home confinement or “some type of community control” as alternatives to jail time. He has already spent more than two years in prison for a related passport fraud charge. He cooperated with authorities, admitted he was wrong and shows potential to contribute to society, attorney Neal Lewis said in the filing.
Hupper pleaded guilty in May to aiding Hamas, a group the United States considers a terrorist organization. He knowingly gave the group $20,000, according to court documents and his defense attorney.
It’s not clear exactly whom Hupper gave the money to. The money in question was given to an individual who is not named in court documents, attorney Neal Lewis said, and that person gave the money to a third party.
Hupper was in Israel at the time working with a non-governmental organization, the International Solidarity Movement, in the Gaza Strip. He joined the group after watching a TV show about the Middle East conflict, his lawyer said.
Until last week, the group Hupper was working with in Israel was not named in court documents.
An Aug. 4 filing by Hupper’s lawyer names ISM, which is the International Solidarity Movement, as the group he worked with during his time abroad. That group is not listed as a terrorist organization on the U.S. Department of State’s list, and Hupper’s lawyer refers to it as “a legitimate organization” that does charitable work.
The International Solidarity Movement was not responsive to requests from the York Daily Record/Sunday News on Thursday and Friday seeking comment on Hupper’s situation. Two brief e-mailed responses from the group did not address Hupper’s situation or related questions.
Hupper admitted to giving money to Hamas after he was charged in 2006 with passport fraud. He had applied for a passport to Israel using someone else’s name, social security number and birthday.
While being interviewed by U.S. officials about the passport fraud, Hupper “admitted to his actions and advised the agents” that he had supported Hamas, according to court documents. Hupper believed that his money was helping individuals who were in need, according to his defense lawyer and court documents.
Hupper’s parents, former Southern York County Supt. Richard Hupper and Pauline Hupper, will be present for his sentencing in Florida this week, according to court documents. They have requested he be given a light sentence.
Several people filed letters supporting Hupper and asking the judge to sentence him to less than maximum of 15 years jail time he faces for aiding a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
“David is the type of person that always thinks about the underdog and the less fortunate,” reads a letter written by Charles R. Sporck Jr., a former co-worker from Florida. “I have talked to him a great deal since his incarceration and I believe he has learned his lesson and will never be involved in such things again.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
The beginning of terrorism
An amateur training camp could be the beginning of indoctrination
http://www.canada.com/ottawacitizen/news/opinion/story.html?id=d61fb954-ff43-4910-9f43-48e8fd6316c5
Saturday, August 09, 2008
A bus destroyed by a bomb London in 2005: Wesley Wark asks at what point does the law delineate where training for terrorism crosses the line to become an illegal act?
Canada is in the midst of two major terrorism trials, something never before experienced in our history.
In Ottawa, the trial of Momin Khawaja resumes on Aug. 19 at which point it is widely anticipated that his defence counsel, Edward Greenspon, will finally show his hand. Greenspon is expected to urge that the charges against his client be dismissed for lack of evidence connecting him to a British plot to use fertilizer bombs against a host of civilian targets in and around London. The trial of the first of 11 alleged members of a Toronto terror cell that is alleged to have threatened to storm Parliament and to detonate a bomb on Front Street, home to both the CBC and the Toronto regional headquarters for CSIS, is in recess while the judge considers the charges.
In both trials, the involvement of the accused in terrorist training camps has emerged as critical evidence. Momin Khawaja attended a camp in Pakistan. While there he took part in weapons training and is alleged to have enjoyed the experience of firing off various pieces of armament. The accused in the Toronto case, who cannot be named because of a publication ban, found his training closer to home, in a couple of do-it-yourself camps, one near Orillia, the other at a conservation area in Rockwood, a small town west of Toronto.
In both cases, crucial evidence to place the accused at these camps came from informants. A former jihadist colleague turned FBI informant, Mohammed Babar, revealed Momin Khawaja’s journey to his Pakistani camp. Babar knew all about the camp because he was its creator. In the Toronto case, the accused’s presence was documented by Mubin Shaikh, a volatile figure who volunteered his services to CSIS after he learned that his childhood friend, Momin Khawaja, had been arrested in 2004. Shaikh was taken on by the alleged leader of the Toronto cell as its military trainer, largely on the basis of his brief stint in the army reserves and tough demeanour.
Shaik’s time on the witness stand proved a little frustrating to the Crown prosecutor in the case, as he gave an unexpected colour to his evidence by suggesting that the accused really knew little about the hidden reality of the training camp’s purpose. Similarly, in the Khawaja case, while the fact of his presence at the Pakistani camp was not disputed, his defence lawyer has pointed out that he attended the camp only briefly (for three to four days), did not rendezvous there with the leader of the British terror cell, Omar Khyam, who visited the camp after Khawaja’s departure, and took no part in the trail detonation of a bomb at the camp. Khawaja’s lawyer has gone further and argued that he did not know the real purpose of the camp, believing that it was intended to train Muslim fighters for jihad in Afghanistan.
The evidence of attendance at terror training camps can seem in these two trials both damning and oddly exculpatory. This paradox goes to the heart of the modern day phenomenon of home-grown terrorism. Simply put, terrorism training camps are not quite what we might imagine them to be; they don’t fit the televised image seared into our conscious after 9/11, of Osama bin Laden’s legions being put through their paces in his Afghan camps. In both the Khawaja and Toronto cases, the camps attended could easily be derided as amateur (the Pakistani camp was disappointingly short of ammo for its one RPG; the Toronto cell had only one 9 mm. handgun to share among its members, who were instructed in gun safety measures by the omni-present Mubin Shaikh). Because amateur, they seem hard to take seriously. But this is to misunderstand their purpose. These camps are less about hard-core paramilitary training and more about bonding and indoctrination. They are the starting part of a journey for the jihadist warrior-to-be.
The question that has to be confronted is whether such camps deserve to be treated any less seriously under the law and in our minds. Are they more about game-playing and rhetorical theatre than about terrorist violence? What sort of distinctions can and should be drawn? What are the appropriate legal and societal responses, for example, to a bunch of hot heads who gathered in a tent in the Rockwood Conservation Area not to roast marshmallows with their children but to listen to speeches about jihad against the kuffar (unbelievers)? Do we pay more attention to the end game of terrorist plotting, the foiling of an imminent attack, than its nascent beginnings?
The dichotomy is false, but this doesn’t make the question of the right response any easier. For perspective, it might be useful to consider the British experience. In February, five men were convicted in connection with their attendance at home-grown terror-training camps in Britain. These camps were carved out of such familiar tourist terrain as the Lake District and the New Forest. They were decidedly amateur, if also grisly. One scene captured on an informant’s cellphone camera involved the practice beheading of a captive using knives wielded against a watermelon. The camps’ leader enjoyed the nom de guerre of Osama bin London; he was a former acolyte of the radical Islamist preacher and infamous imam of the Finsbury Park mosque, Abu Hamza al-Masri, currently in the last throes of fighting his extradition to the U.S. where he is wanted for his alleged involvement in a scheme to create a terror training camp in Oregon.
The British case was smoothed by the fact that under revisions to its anti terrorism laws, organizing and participating in terror-training camps are subject to specific criminal sanctions, with a maximum sentence of 10 years. Whether Canadian laws should follow this British lead will be part of the inevitable stocktaking that will follow the conclusion of the Khawaja and Toronto trials.
To criminalize terror training would serve as a deterrent, and send a signal about zero tolerance. It would extinguish the false dichotomy between amateur and professional training camps, which is meaningless when it comes to home-grown terrorism. But it would come with significant challenges, not least the question of protecting charter rights to free speech and in deciding what constitutes terrorist training.
How far the law should go in pursuing jihadists into a brave new world of virtual “training” via websites, chat rooms and avatar simulations such as to be found at online reality games such as Second Life, is a profound and unsettling question. What we can be sure of is that the early signs of the migration of terrorist training to such virtual worlds are already causing concern to western intelligence agencies, including CSIS.
Wesley Wark, a national-security expert, is a visiting research professor at the University of Ottawa’s graduate school of public and international affairs.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
INTERNATIONAL
Philippines threatens use of force against “towns occupying” rebels
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/07/content_9019661.htm
MANILA, Aug. 7 (Xinhua) — The Philippine government on Thursday ordered hundreds of Muslim rebels to leave towns which they “forcibly taken” in the southern Philippines, otherwise the military and police will take action.
According to Philippine Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno, about ten towns and villages in North Cotabato Province were forcibly occupied by some 800 suspected members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
“We are giving those individuals that have forcibly occupied the areas 24 hours to vacate, otherwise they shall be forcibly separated from there,” Puno said at a press conference in the national police headquarters.
He said three battalions of policemen will be deployed to clear the ground once the ultimatum expires at 9 a.m. Friday.
He said that the announcement of 24-hour deadline is not a declaration of war but “a declaration of the enforcement of the rule of law.”
Puno said rebels had allegedly been involved in the burning of houses, destruction of plantations, looting, and cattle rustling.
And as a result of MILF occupation and atrocity, there are now at least 1,536 families, 6,547 individuals displaced, Puno said.
The MILF, on the other hand, denied such allegations. “There is no such thing,” Eid Kabalu, a spokesman of the MILF told local media that the MILF did not involve in the illegal occupation of towns and villages.
Kabalu said around 1,500 families were displaced primarily due to the “skirmishes” between the rebel group and security forces under the local government.
The 12,000-member MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, hit a deadlock earlier this week in its peace talks with the government.
“We cannot allow these things (illegal occupation) to happen. I know that everyone involved in the peace process does not want this to happen,” Puno said.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Clashes between troops, rebels resume in S. Philippines
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/10/content_9124068.htm
MANILA, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) — Government troops and around 1,000 Muslim rebels accused of occupying civilian villages in southern Philippines exchanged fires on Sunday despite a withdrawal and cease-fire deal agreed by both parties.
The army was given the order to launch clearance offensive Sunday morning. By mid-afternoon, the military authority has confirmed to Xinhua two injuries from the government side, although local media reported one death and five injuries.
But the number of casualties is set to grow as the clashes intensify.
According to local media reports, shots of heavy machine guns were fired amid exchanging of mortars. Local television footage showed civilians fleeing homes and appealing to both sides to return to the negotiation table.
Jorge Segovia, acting chief of the Armed Forces of the Philippines Command Center, said the government forces have launched clearing operations in certain occupied villages in North Cotabato Province as a due course for law enforcement.
In a statement released to media, Segovia said with the defiance to pull out, around 1,000 members of the Moro Islam Liberation Front (MILF) have degenerated themselves into a plain “bandit group” and considered by the authority as “lost command.”
“In certain areas of North Cotabato with a specific group of MILF, all peaceful means have been exhausted to resolve the conflicts and we are now compelled to resort to the application of justifiable force.”
Segovia said the government clearance operation is not directed toward MILF as a group but against a group that ignored the agreement of government and MILF leadership to withdraw from the 10 villages in the province that they allegedly occupied by illegal means.
MILF chief negotiator Mohagher Iqbal described the government’s offensive as a “gross violation on the ceasefire.”
“Well, first we will protest and then second we will exercise our next move, but I cannot tell at this point in time,” Iqbal told local reporters. He said MILF soldiers would “definitely defend themselves.”
The Philippine government on last Thursday issued a 24-hour ultimatum for rebels to vacate occupied towns. Through negotiation, the MILF leadership later in the day agreed to pull out its guerrilla soldiers.
But local officials said MILF soldiers on the ground largely ignored the command of the leadership and continued to occupy the villages.
The 12,000-member MILF, the country’s largest Muslim rebel group, has been fighting for a Muslim state for nearly 4 million Muslims residing in Mindanao region since its founding in 1970s.
The group once signed a truce with the government but it was loosely implemented. The peace talks between the two sides have been on-and-off.
Sporadic skirmishes erupted between the rebels and government forces in the south since Monday when the country’s Supreme Court halted the signing of a Muslim homeland agreement.
The agreement is seen instrumental to a final peace accord but it had met protests from the Christian groups in the South and the strong criticism from the opposition of the administration.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Sri Lankan PM: Terrorism must be eradicated before having talks
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/09/content_9109945.htm
COLOMBO, Aug. 9 (Xinhua) — The Sri Lankan government is steadfast in eliminating terrorism before having talks with Tamil Tiger rebels, Prime Minister Ratnasiri Wickramanayake said on Saturday.
Addressing an election rally at Medirigiriya in the North Central Province, Wickramanayake said “terrorism must be eliminated before anything. Only after that we could talk of talks.”
Wickramanayake said government troops currently engaging Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in the north have sent the rebels reeling.
“We are now knocking on their doors, having limited them to just two districts,” the prime minister said.
The troops said they have entered the rebel heartland districts of Mullaithivu and Kilinochchi where their administration was headquartered.
“We will be soon ending terrorism in the country and it is the duty of everyone to support the government at decisive moment,” Wickramanayake stressed.
In January this year, the Sri Lankan government formally withdrew from the six-year-old ceasefire brokered by the Norwegian peace facilitators.
The government has been insisting if the rebels want further negotiations they must lay down arms.
The LTTE has been fighting the troops since the mid-1980s in their bid to set up a separate homeland for the minority Tamils. More than 70,000 people have died in the conflict.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Air China flight returns to Japan’s airport after receiving bomb threat
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/08/content_9052798.htm
TOKYO, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) — An Air China jetliner returned to Central Japan International Airport near Nagoya and four others were temporarily delayed at Japan’s airports Friday after receiving a bomb threat, Japanese media reported, citing the transport ministry and the Tokyo metropolitan police.
The five flights have all departed as police found no explosives aboard any of them.
The Chinese airline also ordered its all flights not to take off from Japan until security is ensured.
Air China’s Flight 406, which returned to the Chubu airport (the central Japan airport) before 4 p.m. (0700 GMT), was heading for Chongqing via Shanghai and took off from the airport shortly past 3 p.m. (0600 GMT).
And the departure of four other flights was delayed from Japan’ s Narita and Fukuoka airports to carry out security check after its Tokyo office received an e-mail at around 12:50 p.m. (0350 GMT), which threatened to blast the airliner.
There were reportedly a total of 70 crew and passengers aboard the aircraft, and none of them were injured.
|++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bali bombers lodge fresh appeal against method of execution
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/06/content_8996925.htm
JAKARTA, Aug. 6 (Xinhua) — Lawyers of Bali bombers who are in a death row have appealed against the sentences at the Indonesia’s Constitutional Court.
The appeal comes after three times rejections of their separate appeals by the country’s legal institutions.
The rejection made three men Iman Samudra, Amrozi, and Ali Ghufron due to be executed before Islamic holy month of Ramadhan in September.
They remain not to regret over their acts in Bali blasts in 2002 that killed 202 innocent people in night clubs, mostly foreign tourists.
Lawyer of Wirawan Adnan said that they appealed against the method of the execution, which they said is inhuman. The lawyer said they looked to become martyrs and had refused to seek presidential clemency.
The lawyer said that shooting convicts in the chest did not ensure the immediate death and thus should be categorized as torture, which was forbidden under the state constitution. “It is inhuman,” he said.
Wirawan expected that the execution could be delayed until the Constitutional Court issue a method of execution.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Italy: 5 arrested on suspicion of planning attacks By ARIEL DAVID, Associated Press Writer
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080809/ap_on_re_eu/italy_terrorism&printer=1;_ylt=Ajb2Dr2FtA9LzfO4XJUBtVxbbBAF
Sat Aug 9, 8:58 AM ET
Police broke up a suspected terror cell Saturday and arrested five North Africans, including the alleged leader who Italian officials said recruited Islamic extremists for attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Authorities also suspect the cell sent tens of thousands of dollars to groups in Bosnia that offer training and logistical support to Iraqi and Afghan terror organizations, said Claudio Galzerano, head of the Italian police force’s international terrorism division.
Police arrested the five suspects — four Tunisians and one Moroccan — in Bologna and the nearby towns of Faenza and Imola, Galzerano said. They were accused of international terrorism, but have yet to be formally charged, he said. A sixth suspect was still being sought.
Galzerano said those arrested include alleged Tunisian ringleader Khalil Jarraya, a veteran of Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, and four others he allegedly recruited for suicide attacks in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Galzerano said Jarraya, who also has received Bosnian citizenship, may have recruited others already sent abroad.
The arrests followed a three-year investigation based on wiretaps and on training material found in previous searches of the suspects’ homes.
“In the telephone intercepts they always were extremely satisfied when someone blew himself up,” Galzerano told The Associated Press by telephone from Bologna. “These are people who were radicalized in the West and declared themselves ready to become ‘martyrs’ for jihad.”
Galzerano said the cell sent tens of thousands of dollars to Bosnian groups linked to terrorist organizations in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said the money came from the legitimate work of the group’s members as well as from insurance scams, for which a charge of fraud was added to the arrest warrants.
The cell was not part of any specific terrorist organization, but saw itself as close to al-Qaida, Galzerano said.
Investigators have long considered Italy a logistical base where terror groups seek recruits and financing. After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, the country introduced the charge of international terrorism, which can carry a sentence of up to 15 years jail.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
UPDATE 5-Blasts kill two in China’s restive Xinjiang –Xinhua
http://www.reuters.com/article/olympicsNews/idUSL98683020080810
Sat Aug 9, 2008 8:57pm EDT
(Adds details of injured suspects, background of unrest)
By Chris Buckley
BEIJING, Aug 10 (Reuters) - A series of blasts killed at least two people in China’s restive far northwest Xinjiang on Sunday, underscoring volatile tensions there two days into the Olympics and less than a week after a blast killed 16 police.
The blasts in central Kuqa, a major town in southern Xinjiang more than 3,000 km (1,860 miles) from Beijing, occurred before dawn, Xinhua news agency quoted witnesses as saying.
“Casualties of the incident may still rise, Xinhua reported, citing witnesses who “saw flashes of fire and heard sporadic gunshots after the explosions”.
Four or five suspects were killed or injured in the blasts, Xinhua said, raising the possibility that the two dead were perpetrators.
No group has claimed responsibility or been blamed for the blasts, but Chinese officials have said militants seeking an independent homeland for Xinjiang’s largely Muslim Uighurs are one of the top security threats to the Beijing Olympics, which started on Friday.
“With these special circumstances and the special background of the eve of the Beijing Olympic Games, hostile forces at home and abroad will surely act like cornered mad dogs and step up their terror and sabotage activities,” said the governor of Xinjiang, Nuer Baikeli, in the Xinjiang Daily on Friday.
An attack at a border police station in Xinjiang killed 16 police on Monday. Two Uighur suspects have been detained.
Many of Xinjiang’s 8 million Uighurs chafe at the strict controls on religion that China enforces and resent influxes of Han Chinese migrant workers and businesses. Uighurs now make up slightly less than half of its 20 million people, and most of the rest are Han Chinese.
Human rights critics and exiled Uighurs say Beijing has exaggerated the threat of violence in Xinjiang and stirred discontent by encouraging the migration of millions of Han Chinese into the region.
Kuqa county, where the town of the same name lies, is an ethnically mixed area with a population of some 450,000 that has seen unrest. In 2001, the police chief of Kuqa was killed in what authorities called a separatist assassination.
In April, Xinjiang’s hardline Communist Party chief, Wang Lequan, visited Kuqa and told officials “stability comes before all else”, according to a report on the Kuqa government website (www.xjkc.gov.cn).
“Always keep a tight grip on protecting stability and fighting the sources of separatism,” said Wang. (Editing by Nick Macfie)
