Rebiya Kadeer has been attempting to describe the July 5 riot as a sad, tragic incident. She was quite clear that Al-Qaida's support is undoubtedly a kiss of death for Xinjiang separatists.
Al-Qaida's Algerian-based wing, Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), vowed to hit China in retaliation over the July 5 Urumqi incident, targeting Chinese people in the Middle East and North Africa.
Rebiya Kadeer，head of the Xinjiang Uygur separatist organizations overseas, made a quick response that she did not need Al-Qaida support and that Al-Qaida should not take advantage of the July 5 incident.
Why did she dismiss the support from Al-Qaida? Kadeer has been attempting to describe the July 5 riot as a sad, tragic incident. She was quite clear that Al-Qaida's support is undoubtedly a kiss of death for Xinjiang separatists.
The 9-11 terrorist attack deprived Islamic extremists of any sympathy from people around the world. Almost all of the countries and governments vowed that they were against any form of terrorism.
Al-Qaida expressed its support for the Uighur separatists, which made it quite difficult for western countries to blame the Chinese government over the July 5 riot. After all, people around the world will align together when it comes to facing terrorist activities. This will surely win some diplomatic room for the Chinese government in dealing with the riot in Xinjiang.
Following AQIM's footsteps, other extremist groups in the Middle East and South Asia made similar statements to support the Uighur separatists. All of a sudden, the July 5 incident was linked to the extremists and Xinjiang separatists could hardly draw a line between themselves and the Al-Qaida extremists.
According to the previous acts of the Al-Qaida extremists, they extended their support to the Xinjiang separatists not because they sympathized with their "Islamic brothers," but because they had their own plans. US military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq have greatly damaged Al-Qaida. Its leader Bin Laden did not appear and it seems that a power vacuum in the Al-Qaida world has arisen. Many offshoots of Al-Qaida strived for leadership by admitting their engagement in some terrorist attacks of which they did not actually carry out.
The author, He Liangliang, is a senior political commentator of Hong Kong-based Phoenix Satellite TV.
(China.org.cn translated by Zhang Ming'ai, July 16, 2009)
