Explosions In Xinjiang

The China Daily reported on January 22, 2005, that 13 persons werekilled   and 18 others injured in two separate explosions in China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region coinciding with  the Eid-al-Adhareligious festival.

In the first incident,  nine passengers were  killed instantaneously and two others died subsequently following an explosion onJanuary 20, 2005, in a mini-bus carrying 18 persons at anoverpass called Dushanzi in Kuitun, in the Yili Kazahk Autonomous Prefecture.The place where the explosion took place is about 200 kms from the Kazakhborder. Most of the victims were reportedly ethnic minorities (Uighurs?) and notHan Chinese.

Liu Yaohua, head of the Public Security Department of the Autonomous Region, wasquoted as saying that 19 people were on the bus. A man and a woman got offduring the trip, while a man in his 40s, carrying a black canvas bag, got inwhen the bus approached the overpass. The blast took place at the right rear-endof the bus.

The official Hsinhua news agency reported that "explosivematerial" was responsible for the blast. It quoted Liu Yaohua as saying itwas  difficult to determine what explosive material was used, and how itwas detonated. He added, however, that it was a "man-made" explosion,without saying whether it was caused by an improvised explosive device assembledwith a criminal intent.

While  blasts caused by the careless handling of industrialexplosives and other hazardous materials are not unusual in China, due to poorenforcement of laws relating to the purchase, possession, storage and transportof industrial explosives,  the French news agency Agence France Presse (AFP) quoted unnamed Chinese officials as saying that they cannot rule out thepossibility that the blast is linked to the separatist movement of the MuslimUighurs, the non-Han natives of the province, who have been fighting for anindependent State for the Uighurs of Xinjiang and the adjoining Central AsianRepublics (CARs) to be called East Turkistan.

While Chinese officials generally do not cover up news of such explosions, theyrarely release to the media the results of the enquiries held by them into theincidents. As a result, it is often difficult for the outside world to knowdefinitively what and who caused such explosion.

Another explosion was reported the same evening from  the downtown area inUrumqi, capital of Xinjiang, killing two and injuring 11. Huang Gongyi, anofficial with the Urumqi Government, claimed that this incident was caused bynatural gas leakage. The explosion reportedly took place at  apressure-adjusting station of a local gas pipeline firm. The local authoritiesare projecting this incident as purely accidental.

Sixty persons were killed and 200 others injured and over 20 motor vehicles wereseverely damaged on September 8,2000, following an explosion in  a militaryvehicle traveling on the Xishan Road in the western suburbs of Urumqi. TheChinese authorities did not attribute the explosion to any criminal intent andsaid that it was purely an accidental explosion  due to the carelesstransporting of old military explosives , which were being taken for beingdestroyed.

Though there was no evidence to doubt the Chinese claim that it was purely anaccidental explosion, certain unusual circumstances surrounding it led toconsiderable speculation as to whether it could have been purely an accident.The explosion occurred when the vehicle was caught in a traffic jam. It was notinvolved in any collision with another vehicle. On the day of the explosion, thethen  Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji was touring the region. While it was notclear whether he was in Urumqi  at the time of the explosion, he visitedthe injured in an Urumqi hospital the next day.Robert Rubin, former US TreasurySecretary and a senior official of Citigroup, was on a visit to Urumqi at thetime of the explosion. He had called on Zhu the next day and some Americanjournalists reported that during the meeting Zhu made no reference to theexplosion.

Erkin Ekrem, the leader of a pro-separatist group, was quoted by the AFP assaying, "This accident is very strange." He wondered what such a largequantity of explosives was doing in Urumqi. The  local authoritiesimmediately set up a special task force to investigate the cause of theexplosion. The central Government sent a team of investigators led byVice-Minister of Public Security Tian Qiyu to Xinjiang. No separatist groupclaimed responsibility for the explosion. Following an explosion in a bus inBeijing in 1997 which resulted in some casualties, an Uighur separatist grouphad claimed responsibility for it, but the Chinese authorities dismissed theclaim and projected it as an accident.

In a report carried on November 30,2000, the South China Morning Posthad alleged that Yang Xiaofeng, the head of the "Lanzhou Daily" newscenter, was demoted, and  two journalists  of the LanzhouEvening News were dismissed by the authorities for violating "newsdiscipline" by reporting independently on the explosion instead of carryingthe version put out by  Xinhua. as they were expected to. Though theirreports too did not mention any possible criminal intent, the sensitivity of theChinese authorities to any independent investigative reporting of the explosionraised eye-brows. 

Government investigators were subsequently quoted as saying that the militaryvehicle had violated the regulations by carrying what was described as mixedexplosives and that the bumpy road  caused the explosion. This was atvariance with eye-witness accounts that the explosion occurred when the vehiclewas stationery due to a traffic jam. Two senior military officers  werereportedly  dismissed and about 10 others  punished for allegednegligence.

According to the South China Morning Post, the Lanzhou Dailyand  the Lanzhou Evening News  had  sent reporters tothe site and covered the explosion with photos and first-hand reports even before the Xinhua had released the officially authorised account. Their reportswere picked up by many online news sites and sections of the internationalmedia.

Following the 9/11 terrorist strikes in the US, the authorities ofXinjiang mounted a publicity campaign to project the Uighur terrorist groups asforming part of the international jihadi terrorist movement inspired by Osamabin Laden and as having links with Al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan. Forthe first time, they admitted a number of terrorist incidents, which had takenplace in the region during the 1990s and many of which they had not publiclyadmitted before.

A press statement titled "Terrorist Activities Perpetrated by "EasternTurkistan" Organizations and Their Links with Osama bin Laden and the Taliban"issued by the regional authorities on November 29, 2001,  gave thefollowing details of their activities:

The "Eastern Turkistan" force has a total of over 40 organizations. They have engaged themselves in terrorist violence to varying degrees, bothovertly and covertly.  Among these organizations, eight openly advocateviolence in their political platforms.   They are: "Eastern TurkistanIslamic Resistance Movement" in Turkey; "Eastern Turkistan LiberationOrganization", "Eastern Turkistan International Committee", "UnitedCommittee of Uygurs’ Organizations" in Central Asia, and "Central AsianUygur Hezbollah" in Kazakhstan; "Turkistan Party" in Pakistan; "EasternTurkistan Islamic Movement" in Afghanistan; and "Eastern Turkistan YouthLeague" in Switzerland.

Incidents of terrorist violence perpetrated by "Eastern Turkistan" elementsover the past 10 years in the Chinese territory mainly include:

• On 5 April 1990, they killed and injured more than 100 civilians and soldiers in Barin Township of Kizilsu Kirgiz Autonomous Prefecture;
  
  
• On 5 February 1991, the "Islamic Reformist Party" masterminded a bus explosion in Urumqi, killing and injuring over 20 people;
  
  
• Between June and September 1993, the "Eastern Turkistan Democratic Islamic Party" carried out a series of bombings in southern Xinjiang, which led to more  deaths and injuries;
  
  
• On 15 July 1996, the "Eastern Turkistan Islamic Justice Party" engineered a prison rebellion in Xayar County, killing 15 people and a riot in Yining on 5 February 1997, which resulted in over 300 casualties;
  
  
• On 25 February 1997, the "Eastern Turkistan National Solidarity Union" staged a horrendous bomb explosion incident in Urumqi which involved nearly 100 casualties and in early 1998 the same group was responsible for 25 poisoning cases in southern Xinjiang, where over 40 people fell victim and four died;
  
  
• In January 2001, Akbelbek Timur, an "Eastern Turkistan" terrorist who is now in custody, bought explosives in Kazakhstan and smuggled them into Xinjiang for attempted terrorist activities.

• In February 1997, "Eastern Turkistan" terrorists opened fire on the Chinese Embassy in Ankara, attacked the Chinese Consulate-General in Istanbul and burned Chinese national flags;

• On 5 March 1998, terrorists of the "Eastern Turkistan National Center" carried out bomb attacks on the Chinese Consulate-General in Istanbul;

• In November 1999 and August 2000, the "Eastern Turkistan" elements were involved in an armed insurgency and invasion led by the "Uzbek Islamic Movement" into the southern regions of Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan ;

• In May 2000, terrorists of the "Uygur Liberation Organization" set fire to the Chinese Commodities Market in Bishkek and murdered one person from China’s Xinjiang, who was sent to Kyrgyzstan to investigate the case;

• On 28 September 2000, terrorists under the command of the "Uygur Liberation Organization" killed two Kazkh policemen in Alma-Ata;

• In May 2001, terrorists of the "Uygur Youth Association of Kazakhstan" robbed in Alma-Ata a bank vehicle that carried banknotes.

•   The "Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement" ( ETIM) is a major component of the terrorist network headed by  bin Laden.  Hasan Mahsum, the ETIM ringleader,used to  hide in Kabul  and had an Afghan passport issued by the Taliban.   bin Laden asked the ETIM to stir up trouble in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, and then stage an organized infiltration into  Xinjiang.  The "Turkistan Army" under the ETIM fought along with  the Taliban in Afghanistan.  This "Army" has a special "China Battalion" with about 320 terrorists from Xinjiang.  The battalion is under the direct command of Hasan Mahsum’s deputy Kabar.
  
  
• The armed elements of the ETIM received training in terrorist training camps in Kabul, Mazar-i-Sharif, Kunduz, Vardak, Kandahar, Herat, Shibarghan and other places.  Some of these camps were directly under the control of bin Laden and the Taliban and some were military bases of the "Uzbek Islamic Movement".  The "Central Asian Uygur Hezbollah" is said to have a 1000-strong armed force and had training bases in Afghanistan.  The "Uygur National Army" received battle training in July and August 1999 in the Taliban bases in Afghanistan.  They practiced firing with  conventional weapons with live ammunition and learned the Taliban guerilla warfare tactics and terrorist skills such as assassination, explosion and poisoning.  After their training, the "Eastern Turkistan" elements  fought in  Afghanistan, Chechnya and Uzbekistan, or returned to Xinjiang for terrorist and violent activities.
  
  
• In early 1999, bin Laden met with Hasan Mahsum and offered him financial assistance.  In 2000, bin Laden and the Taliban  provided the ETIM with 300, 000 US dollars  and undertook to cover all the expenses of the ETIM in  2001.  The activities of the "Central Asian Uygur Hezbollah" are also partially financed by  bin Laden.

• Explosions: On February 5, 1992, the terrorists set off a chain of explosions in public buses, video-show halls and some residential buildings, killing three persons and injuring  20 others. In 1993, the terrorists staged 10 explosions , committed four assassinations or attempted assassinations  in Kashi, Kotan and Aksu, killing  two persons  and injuring 36 others. February 25, 1997, saw five explosions  on buses in Urumqi, killing  nine persons  and injuring 68 others. Between February 22 and March 30, 1998, the terrorists organised  six explosions at Yecheng County. Three  persons were  injured and a natural-gas pipeline was  damaged.
  
  
• Assassinations: The  terrorists killed a religious cleric in  the Xinhe County on 22 March 1996 and on May 12,1996, they killed  the chief mullah of the Idgah Mosque, who was  concurrently vice-chairman of the Political Consultative Conference of Xinjiang. On April 9 the same year,  five relatives  of the former deputy Party secretary of the Alahake Township were killed. This was  followed by the assassination of another deputy secretary of the political and judicial commission, a member of the Party Committee of the Bosikehe Township of Zepu County and his son. On January25, 2000, the  terrorists killed seven members of two Han families in the Wushi County. The next day,they  killed   a Han elderly couple  in the Xinhe County.
  
• Arson: A terrorist plan to set fire to 15 commercial establishments on 23 May, 1998, was thwarted.  
  
  
• Poisoning: Between January 30 and February  18,1998, the terrorists were involved in   23 cases of poisoning or attempted poisoning   in Kashi.
  
  
• Rioting and other incidents: On  July. 7, 1995, the  terrorists attempted  to break into  the Prefectural Party Committee, Government offices and public security bureau at Kotan and damage the property. On  February 5 - 6, 1997, seven persons were killed and over 200 injured in a rioting incited by the terrorists  in Yining.More than 20 vehicles were set on fire.On April 5, 1990 the terrorists incited  a  riot in Baren Township, Aktao County, in which eight members of the local f armed police were killed.