China: 'Separatists' In Muslim NW Trained In Pakistan

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China: 'Separatists' In Muslim NW Trained In Pakistan

URUMQI, China (AP)--Separatists in China's Muslim northwest are getting help from international terrorists - including instruction in "several training camps in Pakistan," the region's Communist Party secretary said Thursday on the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Wang Lequan, who also is a member of the party's top-level Politburo, said the government is winning the battle against forces that oppose Beijing's rule in the Xinjiang region. But he said the efforts are hampered by assistance from terrorists abroad.

"We are fighting hostile forces that are trying to undermine stability in China," Wang said at a news conference for visiting foreign reporters.

"We have found some training camps in Xinjiang after the Sept. 11 incident, but not many," he said. "The religious extremists in this population are a very trivial number."

China blames what it says is a separatist movement for nearly 200 deaths in Xinjiang since 1990. But foreign experts and diplomats say many of those deaths were not separatist-related and that most bombings and other anti-government violence are carried out by individuals or small groups, not an organized movement.

Wang gave no details on recent violent incidents or information to support his claims of foreign terrorist ties. He also gave no information on arrests or numbers of armed militants in Xinjiang suspected of opposing the government.

Some 11 million of Xinjiang's 19.2 million people are members of Muslim ethnic groups.

Beijing last year accused one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, of being part of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, but has given no evidence to support its claims.

Wang said Afghanistan's rigorously Islamic Taliban militia, which was deposed after a U.S. air war following Sept. 11, helped train many of the Xinjiang separatists.

Without giving details or mentioning al-Qaida by name, Wang identified Pakistan as a place where assistance continues.

"They have several training camps in Pakistan," he said, without elaborating.

China sealed its borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan after Sept. 11 but has since reopened them.

The East Turkistan Islamic Movement has been outlawed by China for more than a decade. Last year, after heavy lobbying by Beijing, the United States added ETIM to its list of terrorist groups.

Washington had previously rejected Chinese claims that Xinjiang was linked to an international terrorist threat, calling for a political solution to tensions in the region.

Wang said government efforts in Xinjiang were winning what he called its battle against extremism, but he said the efforts were difficult.

"This is complicated work," he said. "The enemy is in the dark, and we are in the open. We cannot guarantee total victory."

Asked about a report last year by a central government think tank that said more fervent styles of Islam were on the rise in Xinjiang, Wang cautioned against equating Islam with terrorism outright.

"Devotion to religion is only normal," he said. "It's easy to get confused here. We have no problem with Islamic devotion. It is when people use that as an excuse to instigate certain activities that we become concerned."

Referring to separatists, he added: "These people engage in indiscriminate murders of innocents."

Wang said that fighting extremism involved not only police activity but education as well.

"We are trying to teach our people what these forces represent. That's much of the battle," he said. "Today Xinjiang is a peaceful society. People live here in harmony."

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