Please FReepmail me if you would like to be on or off of the list.
(This can be a high volume ping list.)
Posted on 04/03/2008 2:59:33 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Group says Chinese police arrest 70 in Xinjiang
Reuters - 1 hour 29 minutes ago
BEIJING (Reuters) - Police have arrested 70 people from China's minority Uighur ethnic group in the Silk Road oasis city of Kashgar, fearing trouble when the Olympic torch passes through the city in June, an exile group said on Thursday.
(Advertisement) Calls to police and government offices in Kashgar went unanswered, but others in the restive region of Xinjiang say security has been ratcheted up ahead of the Beijing Games in August.
The report comes at a tense time for China as it confronts ethnic unrest on two fronts. In Xinjiang, protesters in one city last month rallied for more religious freedom and, according to a government Web site, held up independence flags.
Authorities in early March said they had thwarted an attempt by Xinjiang separatists to blow up an aeroplane in mid-air.
In Tibet, Buddhist monk-led marches turned into an anti-Chinese riot in the capital Lhasa last month and touched off a rash of demonstrations throughout the region.
On a trip to Yunnan, China's most diverse province, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao offered increased government support for poor areas populated by ethnic minorities but called for unity.
"All ethnic groups form one big family. We must be united and help each other, to prosper and make progress together," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Wen as saying.
The recent unrest has dented propaganda claims of harmony, elicited concern from abroad and cast a shadow over the upcoming Olympics, which the Chinese leadership has hoped will be a chance to showcase the country's development.
China has responded by cranking up security, sending thousands of anti-riot troops into Tibetan-populated areas and launching a propaganda blitz. Rights groups have reported abuses.
Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, a Germany-based exile group that seeks independence, said the authorities were using the Olympics as an excuse to crack down on the Turkic-speaking Muslim Uighurs.
"One world one dream?" he said, referring to Beijing's Olympic motto. "Is that right? The Uighurs have a different dream ... We don't want the Olympics here."
Elsewhere in Xinjiang, U.S. government-supported Radio Free Asia reported police raids on a handful of homes, possibly in search of arms.
Police and locals reached by telephone denied the report.
A hotel employee in Yili said, however, security had been increased since early February, but that everything was otherwise normal. "We are going to our jobs every day and kids are going to school," the employee said. " ... It's not like Tibet."
Separatist ambitions in Xinjiang have long been a source of concern for Chinese officials, and rights groups accused China of using the U.S.-led war on terror as an excuse for widespread suppression of Uighurs and to curtail religious freedoms.
In and around Tibet, suppression continued, according to the International Campaign for Tibet, which said on Thursday it had received reports of mass detentions, monasteries under siege and authorities in one case targeting people using cell phones out of apparent fear that news of the crackdown would leak out.
The top Communist Party official in Tibet said the Himalayan region would reopen to domestic and foreign tourists as soon as possible, and probably by May 1, after authorities cranked up security after the March 14 riot in Lhasa.
China blames the exiled Dalai Lama, whom it labels a separatist, and his followers for stirring up the Lhasa violence in which it says 19 people died. The Tibet government-in-exile says around 140 people died.
(Writing by John Ruwitch; Editing by Nick Macfie)
Ping!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.