[iwar] [fc:Attacks.Bring.Terror.War.to.China]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-06 21:31:01
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From: Fred Cohen <fc@all.net>
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Date: Sat, 6 Oct 2001 21:31:01 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Attacks.Bring.Terror.War.to.China]
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Attacks Bring Terror War to China
By JOHN LEICESTER  Associated Press Writer

KASHGAR, China - As the sun sets, a streetside butcher lays out his
prayer mat and bows to Mecca.  The sizzle of roasting kebabs fills the
air.  Women hidden under brown veils haggle with vendors over
pomegranates. 

But dark tensions also lurk on these peaceful, if frenetic, streets of
Kashgar, an oasis in China's rugged far west.  Uighurs, the city's
Muslim people, talk of arrests by Chinese security forces.  Plainclothes
agents keep watch.  The shrill yells of drilling soldiers pierce the
dusk. 

Now, complicating this volatile mix, come the aftershocks of the Sept. 
11 terror attacks in the United States.  Nowhere do the attacks and
their aftermath threaten to be more destabilizing for China than in its
western region of Xinjiang bordering Afghanistan, where Chinese
communism meets Muslim tradition with sometimes violent consequences. 

Many Kashgar Muslims are skeptical of U.S.  allegations that Osama bin
Laden and his radical Islamic followers were responsible for the
attacks.  Others say they want to see proof of the Saudi-born suspect's
involvement before the U.S.  retaliates against his protectors, the
Taliban rulers of Afghanistan. 

''The Americans are talking rubbish when they say they know who did it. 
They don't know.  None of us know,'' said Amaijan, a Uighur who uses
just one name.  He runs a stall selling greeting and invitation cards,
including one that features New York's World Trade Center before it was
destroyed. 

Such skepticism could sharpen divisions between Uighurs and Beijing as
Chinese leaders back the international crackdown on terrorism. 
Supporting Washington against bin Laden and the Taliban risks alienating
Uighurs who already resent Beijing's heavy-handed rule and migration
into Xinjiang by Han Chinese, China's dominant ethnic group. 

''We are Muslims.  The Afghans are Muslims.  Of course, we don't want to
see Muslims being attacked,'' said Mamiti, who sells copperware.  ''But
there's nothing we can do - the Han control us like this,'' he said,
making a fist.  ''If we speak out, they arrest us.''

China has qualified its support for Washington by saying that strikes
should be carefully targeted against proven terrorists, avoiding
innocent casualties.  It also wants the U.N.  Security Council, where
China has veto power as a permanent council member, to be involved. 

But Beijing also stands to benefit from possible U.S.  attacks against
Afghan terrorist training camps.  Uighur militants who occasionally
carry out bombings, attacks and assassinations against Chinese rule in
Xinjiang have received military training and inspiration from
Afghanistan. 

Besides a drop in foreign tourists in the wake of Sept.  11, there is
little overt tension on Kashgar's busy streets and in its narrow alleys. 
The faithful still fill mosques, bazaars bustle with the cries of
vendors selling carpets from central Asia, saffron from Iran and henna
from India. 

But to keep out unrest, Islamic zealotry and any refugees Beijing has
stationed extra soldiers and tightened checkpoints in the mountains that
form Xinjiang's frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan - 180 miles south
of Kashgar. 

Human rights campaigners fear China will use the Sept.  11 attacks to
justify or intensify its years-long campaign to crush Uighur
separatists.  Scholars expect China, Russia and four central Asian
states that have teamed up against terrorism and religious extremism to
share intelligence and work more closely. 

''There are always tensions between Han and Uighurs.  Every five or 10
years they make trouble, we round them up and shoot a few.  Then they
don't make trouble anymore,'' said Li Chengjia, who moved to Xinjiang
four decades ago as a soldier and now drives a taxi in Kashgar. 

''There's a lot of us Han, but only a few of them Uighurs,'' Li said. 
''They've got to accept our rule.''

China is also using economic development to tie Xinjiang closer to the
rest of the country.  A rail link to Kashgar opened two years ago. 
People's Square in central Kashgar has a new Bank of China building to
go with its giant statue of revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung. 

''There's a large group of Uighurs who are very happy to be part of
China and have seen what's happened in Central Asia - the economic
problems, the civil war in Tajikistan, the problems with Islamic
radicalism,'' said Dru Gladney, an expert on China's Muslims at the
University of Hawaii. 

''Many of them are saying: We've got problems here in Xinjiang, but it
could be a lot worse.''

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