Knee Jerk Responses

With less than a month to go for the Beijing Olympics, the Chineseauthorities are showing increasing signs of nervousness over possible acts ofterrorism by the Islamic Movement of East Turkestan (IMET) either in the Olympicvenues or in Xinjiang or in any of the Central Asian Republics or in Pakistan.This nervousness has been reflected in the forcible closure of nearly 40allegedly  illegal mosques in Xinjiang, more arrests of alleged terroristsand the execution of the death sentences awarded by the courts in the pastagainst alleged Uighur terrorists. The Chinese do not seem to have taken intoconsideration the danger that such acts by themselves may provoke the Uighurdissidents to retaliate against them.

The forcible closure of the so-called unauthorised mosques seems to have beentriggered  off by fears that some of  these mosques may turn out to be the Lal Masjids of Xinjiang. The Lal Masjid of Islamabad became the base of theactivities of pro-Al Qaeda and pro-Taliban Pashtun student extremists last year,forcing Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to order the Army commandoes toraid the Masjid in July last year to wrest  control of the Masjid from the extremists. He ordered this raid after the students kidnapped some Chinese womenworking in local beauty and massage parlours and accused them of leading animmoral life.

The Chinese have been closely monitoring the situation in the tribal belt ofPakistan and having frequent interactions with the Pakistani authorities inorder to prevent any act of terrorism mounted from the Pakistani territorybefore or during the Olympics.

On July 9, 2008, the Chinese authorities announced the public execution of two Uighurs whose names (Chinese version, not their original ethnic names)were given out by them as Muheteer Setiwalidi and Abdulwaili Yiming after theyhad been convicted by a Kashgar court on November 9,2007, on charges ofseparatist activities, attending a terrorist training camp and manufacturingexplosives. According to the announcement, the court had awarded three other Uighurs suspended death sentences and sentenced 12 other Uighurs tovarious terms of imprisonment. All of them were accused of being members of the IMET. They were reported to have joined the IMET in August 2005 and werearrested by the Police in January, 2007.

The public announcement of the sentences awarded to the 17 Uighurs came a day after the police of Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, forcibly entered aflat to arrest 15 Uighurs, who were also projected as members of the IMET. Fiveof them were killed by the police when they allegedly resisted arrest.

While the observance of the birthday of the Dalai Lama on July 6,2008, passedoff without any incident in Tibet and other Tibetan-inhabited areas of China,there were reports of unrest and protest meetings by Tibetan nomads in theLithang area of the Sichuan province when the Chinese banned the holding of the traditional annual horse-racing festival by the nomads. The observance ofthe festival in the beginning of August last year led to acts of violence whenthe local police arrested some nomads for shouting slogans praising the DalaiLama. The Chinese  apparently did not want to face the risk of a similarincident this year just a few weeks before the Olympics. They played it safe bybanning the festival. The People's Liberation Army was able to bring theprotests under control without difficulty, but 600 troops have been sent to thearea to reinforce the local security forces.

Meanwhile, 116 Tibetans arrested during the anti-Beijing uprising in Marchlast are now being tried by courts in Lhasa  on charges of arson, robberyand attacks on public servants. Forty-two of them have already been sentenced tovarious terms of imprisonment. The trial of the remaining is continuing. TheChinese authorities have not ruled out the possibility that some of theremaining may be sentenced to death and executed.

There have been no reports of fresh arrests in Tibet. Though the Chineseofficials of Tibet have kept up their patriotic re-education classes, they havebeen a little more careful to avoid excesses against the Tibetans because of thewidespread support for the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan cause  in theinternational community. At a time when the movement for a boycott of theopening ceremony of the Olympics has stopped with many world leaders, includingPresident George Bush, re-affirming their decision to attend the inauguralfunction, the Chinese have been avoiding any ham-handed action against theTibetans.

They are not observing a similar caution in respect of the Uighurs, who donot have an iconic leader like the Dalai Lama. Moreover, by projecting everyUighur dissident arrested as a member of the pro-Al Qaeda IMET, which is treatedas a terrorist organisation by the US, the Chinese have been able to ensure thattheir actions in Xinjiang do not become the focus of international scrutiny inthe days preceding the Olympics.

The  Chinese are really nervous about the dangers of an act of jihaditerrorism during the Olympics. The international community, which too isnervous, has been giving the benefit of doubt to the Chinese and is notcriticising the action taken by the Chinese against the Muslim Uighurs in thesame manner as it criticised their action against the Buddhist Tibetans.

The anger in Xinjiang and in the Uighur and Uzbek communities in Pakistan andthe Central Asian Republics over the Chinese actions and  the perceivedsilence of the international community because the victims were Muslims mightincrease the dangers of an act of jihadi terrorism  before or during theOlympics either by the Uighurs or by their co-religionists.

Meanwhile, the second round of the resumed dialogue between Chinese officialsand two representatives of the Dalai Lama in Beijing in the first week of July,2008, did not see any forward movement. Though the Chinese agreed to a thirdround in October next, the Dalai Lama's representatives have come back with theimpression that there has been no change in the Chinese position of refusing todiscuss with the representatives of the Dalai Lama their demand for genuineautonomy in Tibet. They feel that the Chinese are just biding their time tillthe Olympics are over and that once the games are over, the Chinese will goafter those in Tibet and other areas, who continue to support the Dalai Lama.

The Chinese have been firm that there is no question of any dialogue with theDalai Lama's representatives on the political set-up in Tibet and on anypolitical role for the Dalai Lama and that the dialogue will be confined to theDalai Lama's role as a religious leader. According to them, the Tibetan diasporawill not have any political role, which will be confined to the Tibetan membersof the Chinese Communist Party.

B. Raman is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. ofIndia, New Delhi, and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies,Chennai. He is also associated with the Chennai Centre For China Studies.