முஸ்லீம்கள் மீது கம்யூனிஸ்டுகள் கடும் தாக்குதல்: ஏராளமானோர் கைது: பலர் பலி

முஸ்லீம்கள் மீது கம்யூனிஸ்டுகள் கடும் தாக்குதல்: ஏராளமானோர் கைது: பலர் பலி. சீனாவின் உகைர் பகுதியில் முஸ்லீம்கள் சீனாவுக்கு எதிராக கிளர்ந்து எழுந்ததால், சீன கம்யூனிஸ்டுகள் கடுமையாக முஸ்லீம்களை ஒடுக்கியுள்ளனர்.

Muslim protests draw wrath of Chinese
By Christopher Bodeen

NEW separatist unrest was reported yesterday among a Muslim minority group in far western China, posing another headache for Beijing as it seeks to control fallout from earlier anti-government protests in Tibet.

The government has sought to dismiss the protests in Xinjiang as opportunistic, but observers have suggested that linking the two restive areas is a way to delegitimise grievances in both regions.

Disturbances were reported at a weekly Sunday bazaar in the city of Hotan, deep in the Uighur cultural heartland in far-western Xinjiang, according to a statement on a local government website.

The statement said a "tiny number of people" attempted to create an incident on March 23 "under the flag of separatism". Police responded and the incident was "handled according to the law", it said. The statement said no injuries occurred.

An official with Hotan’s government information office, Fu Chao, yesterday blamed the protest on Uighur separatists seizing on the Tibet unrest to generate publicity for their cause. Fu said several dozen people were taken into custody, but most were later released.

"These people are splittists responding to the Tibetan riots," Fu said in a telephone interview. "The core splittists are still under custody."

The spread of protests to Xinjiang creates new problems for Beijing as it tries to contain demonstrations while fending off criticism of its treatment of minorities ahead of this summer’s Beijing Olympics. Tibet supporters have been among the most vocal of a variety of groups seeking to use the Olympics to turn the spotlight on free speech restrictions, curbs on religion and alleged human rights violations.

The incident in Hotan came nine days after deadly rioting in Tibet’s capital, Lhasa, set off a wave of protests in Tibetan areas of western China.

In both cases, China has responded with harsh crackdowns, while refusing to discuss economic, ethnic and political grievances underpinning the protests.

On Tuesday, China accused supporters of Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, of seeking to step up agitation by preparing suicide squads to carry out attacks in Tibet. The India-based Tibetan government-in-exile immediately denied the charge, saying it remained dedicated to the nonviolent struggle promoted by the Dalai Lama, a Nobel Peace laureate.

The Ministry of Public Security also said searches of monasteries had turned up weapons caches, including 176 guns and 350 knives.

Andrew Fischer, a fellow at the London School of Economics who researches Chinese development policies in Tibetan areas of China, said Beijing has tried to change the "nonviolent, compassionate" image of Tibetans to draw parallels to the more violent pro-independence stance in Xinjiang. "If they succeed in portraying them that way, then they can treat them the same way they treat Muslims in Xinjiang," he said.

Many Tibetans insist they were an independent nation before Communist troops invaded in 1950, while radical Islamic groups in Xinjiang have battled Chinese rule through a low-intensity campaign of bombings and assassination.

Meanwhile, China has intensified its interference with a Tibetan exile radio network’s news broadcasts into Tibet, the network charged yesterday.

The Chinese use radio stations inside Tibet to block the shortwave frequency used by the Voice of Tibet, said Oystein Alme, a Norwegian who runs the nonprofit foundation’s business office in Oslo.

In a surprising aside, diplomats say that China has given the UN nuclear watchdog intelligence linked to Tehran’s alleged attempts to make nuclear arms.

The development is surprising because Beijing, along with Russia, has opposed US-led attempts to impose harsh penalties on Tehran over its nuclear defiance. Any Chinese decision to provide information to the International Atomic Energy Agency thus seems to reflect growing international unease over Iran’s atomic agenda.