B.RAMAN
Two Uighurs working for the Ministry of Public
Security in the Hotan area of the Xinjiang province of China are reported to
have been killed on April 26,2013, when the local Uighurs in the village of
Yengi Awat protested against fellow Uighurs forcibly being used by the Han
Police to make a physical search of Uighur women suspected of being
separatists.
2. Radio Free Asia, funded by the US State
Department, which, inter alia reports on the state of the non-Han minorities in
China, has quoted Dilxat Raxit, Sweden-based spokesman for the World Uighur
Congress, as stating that the Hotan deaths followed clashes between local
Muslim Uighurs and local people hired to "maintain stability" and
watch over the neighborhood.
3. He said in an interview to the radio: "We
are still trying to establish the actual cause of the clashes, but one issue is
that China has recently stepped up security patrols in the Hotan area. They
have sent large numbers of uniformed personnel there along the state highway
from Kashgar, and you can see Chinese military vehicles everywhere, frequently."
4. Before this fresh incident, the Xinjiang
authorities had organised a conference on April 25 to discuss measures for
maintaining stability in the region under the chairmanship of Zhang Chunxian, the Party chief of Xinjiang.
5.In a message read out at the conference, President
Xi Jinping called for the early restoration of
stability in the region. Party and State Government speakers at the conference said that terrorists are
enemies of the people of all ethnic groups across the country and should be
fought with no mercy. They added that it is also important to learn the right
lessons from the latest clash and to boost the powers of community-level
officials to maintain stability.
6. The “Global Times” of the Communist Party of
China (CPC) reported in its web site that Xi gave instructions on "how to
handle the case, deal with the aftermath, and maintain stability in
Xinjiang".
7.In a commentary carried on April 26, the “China
Daily” said: “ Whoever they are, wherever they are, and with whatever it takes,
there has to be decisive moves to wipe out terrorist cells in the country. The
violent attacks are another bloody reminder that terrorist threats remain a
clear and present danger in the country's north-western region. Since the 2009 riot in the region's capital,
Urumqi, which left 197 dead, the local government has been working hard to deal
with the threats from separatist, terrorist and extremist forces. While the
overall situation in Xinjiang remains stable, Tuesday's violence tells us the
battle against the "three evil forces" is still severe and
challenging. Previous violent incidents
in Kashgar have all been traced to three evil forces, and overseas separatists,
extremists and terrorists have also been found taking advantage of modern
communication technologies, such as the Internet, to instigate unrest in
Xinjiang. There has been evidence of
infiltration of terrorist organizations from neighbouring countries, some of
which have even been found to have links with al-Qaeda.”
8. The Chinese authorities have accused the US of
double standards in dealing with terrorism for calling for an impartial enquiry
into the violent incidents in Xinjiang. ( 27-4-13)
( The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute
For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate of the Chennai Centre For China
Studies. Twitter: @SORBONNE75 )
