The top leader of Xinjiang
Uygur Autonomous Region said yesterday that a Uygur fugitive
who fled to the US has terrorist connections, and announced that a
suspected separatist leader was killed on Monday after firing at
police.
At a press conference on plans for the region's
50th anniversary celebrations, Wang
Lequan, Xinjiang committee secretary of the Communist Party of
China, said the regional government has reliable evidence showing
that Rebiya Kadeer, freed on bail and now in the US, had close
connections with foreign terrorists.
Kadeer, once a wealthy businesswoman and member of the Chinese
People's Political Consultative Conference, was jailed for eight
years in 1999 on charges of endangering national security by giving
State secrets to foreigners. She was released on medical parole on
March 17 this year.
According to Wang, after going abroad, Kadeer conspired with
separatists and religious extremists "to plan terror attacks and
jeopardize the region's 50th anniversary," which will be marked on
October 1, though he did not reveal the evidence that had been
collected.
The regional government recently froze Kadeer's assets after
learning she had attempted to get her children, who still live in
China, to take her money out of the country, according to Wang.
He said that when the government investigated her business, it
found she had evaded taxes, committed fraud and run up huge
debts.
"She had debts totaling 50 million yuan (US$6.2 million)," Wang
said. "If her assets were smuggled out of the country and the debts
went unpaid, it would severely harm social stability."
Wang also said Abdullah Kurban, an ethnic Uygur believed to have
headed a separatist group, was killed on Monday after he fired on
police who were chasing him.
"In the late 1990s, Kurban's terrorist group instigated many
riots and other crimes," he said, adding that he had been on the
run for five years.
With Xinjiang bordering eight countries, including Afghanistan,
Pakistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Russia, Wang said
"conditions are very complicated," referring to the fight against
terrorism.
"Terrorists are now hated and detested in Xinjiang," regional
Chairman Ismail Tiliwaldi said. "They are like rats running onto
the street, and everyone is screaming: 'Smash them!'"
(China Daily August 26, 2005)