Xinjiang riot hits regional anti-terror nerve
- Source: Xinhua
- [16:53 July 18 2009]
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Gunaratna said the joint exercise is a good start for the SCO member states and all other countries and regions, especially the United States, Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, should share their terrorism intelligence.
Having received training, weapons, finance and ideology from Al-Qaida, ETIM suicide bombers presented a growing threat both to coalition forces in Afghanistan and to China, said Prof. Gunaratna.
Shortly after the riot, Beijing targeted Rebiya Kadeer, a Uygurwoman who flew to the United States on medical parole in 2005 and is president of the World Uyghur Congress (WUC), as the plotter and instigator of the violence.
The separatist group ETIM is driving the hatred and fueling violence among Han and Uygur ethnic groups, Prof. Gunaratna said.
The ETIM leadership, which is located in Waziristan on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, was responsible for a series of bombings in Xinjiang and other areas in China in the lead-up to the Beijing Olympics.
The Al-Qaida organization in the Islamic Magherb, the Al-Qaida's north Africa wing known as AQIM, reportedly has threatened for the first time to attack Chinese interests overseasas a revenge for the deaths of Muslims in Xinjiang riot.
A report from Stirling Assynt, an international consultation specializing in terrorism risk analysis, has warned the threat should be taken seriously as other Jihadist wings are likely to follow.
During the annual session of the NPC, China's top legislature, in March last year, flight police and stewardesses foiled an explosion attack in mid-air aboard a passenger plane from Urumqi to Beijing.
The terrorists were later identified to belong to a separatist group that planned to attack Beijing as it hosted the 2008 OlympicGames.
Four days ahead of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Games, terrorists drove a vehicle carrying explosives into an armed police squad in Xinjiang's Kashgar. Sixteen were killed and another sixteen were severely injured.
Some Chinese legal experts suggested the government have more effective anti-terror legislation after the Xinjiang riot.
"The nature of the riot has the major characteristics of a typical terrorist attack," said Bo Xiao, director of the Commission for Legislative Affairs of the Standing Committee of Xinjiang regional People's Congress.
"The rioters have adopted violent measures to realize their political intentions, which caused innocent people's deaths and regional panic," Bo said.
China should establish a special law for counter-terrorism in addition to the current less explicit regulations scattered throughout different laws, he said.
Lin Ping, a legal expert with the procuratorate of Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps, said the government should cut terrorist finance channels by establishing a comprehensive mechanism involving financial organizations, enterprises and other organizations.