China issues list of terrorists and organizations

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, December 16, 2003

China issues list of terrorists and organizations

China's Ministry of Public Security Monday issued a list of the names of four "Eastern Turkistan" terrorist groups and 11 members of the groups.

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China's Ministry of Public Security Monday issued a list of the first batch of identified "Eastern Turkistan" terrorist organizations and 11 members of the groups.

The identified "Eastern Turkistan" terrorist organizations are: the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM), the Eastern Turkistan Liberation Organization (ETLO), the World Uygur Youth Congress (WUYC) and the Eastern Turkistan Information Center(ETIC).

The 11 identified "Eastern Turkistan" terrorists are: Hasan Mahsum, Muhanmetemin Hazret, Dolqun Isa, Abudujelili Kalakash, Abudukadir Yapuquan, Abudumijit Muhammatkelim, Abudula Kariaji, Abulimit Turxun, Huadaberdi Haxerbik, Yasen Muhammat, and Atahan Abuduhani.

This is the first time China issued a list of terrorist organizations and terrorists.

"The list was determined after careful and discreet identification and examination in accordance with relevant anti-terrorism resolutions by the United Nations, the Criminal Law, the State Security Law and other laws and regulations,'' said Zhao Yongchen, deputy director of the Anti-terrorism Department under the ministry at a press conference in Beijing.

"I strongly call on governments of all foreign countries, the law enforcement organs in particular, to outlaw according to law the four terrorist organizations that China has announced to the public, prohibit their activities, stop supporting, financing or providing safe havens to the organizations, and freeze their assets,'' he said.

"I also call on the governments to carry out criminal investigations of the 11 terrorists, apprehend them and hand them over to our country, so as to enable us to determine their criminal responsibilities according to the law.''

He said the government would fight "East Turkistan'' terrorism while effectively safeguarding the fundamental interests of people in Xinjiang and other parts of China.

Zhao stressed the government would target only core members of the terrorist groups who organized, led and participated in terrorist activities and those involved in serious violence.

The four terrorist organizations in the list were all confirmed to have plotted, organized and executed bombings, assassinations, arsons, poison attacks and other violent terrorist activities in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, other places of China and neighbouring countries since 1990s.

The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, for instance, was responsible for December 14, 1999 killings in Moyu County of Hotan Prefecture of Xinjiang, a robbery and murder case in Urumqi, capital of the autonomous region, on February 4 that same year, and other acts of terror. In total, the group has claimed six innocent lives and caused heavy property losses.

Having been identified by the UN as a terrorist organization, it was funded mainly by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network and received training, support and personnel from both the al-Qaida and the Taliban regime of Afghanistan.

The Eastern Turkistan Liberation Organization also received gift money from al-Qaida and sent its new recruits, all youth from Xinjiang, to training camps in Afghanistan under Taliban support.

The organization was responsible for bomb attacks in the state of Oshskaya, Kirghizstan in 1998, an armed robbery of the Alma-Ata World Bank in Kazakhstan in 2000, and the murder of Chinese diplomat Wang Jianping in Kirghizstan in 2002.

Terror groups found responsible for crimes

When Kazak police cracked a case in which the organization members murdered four people and cut their bodies into pieces in June 1998, officers also found detailed plans for plane hijacking and jailbreaks in a notebook they seized.

The World Uygur Youth Congress, with plans of assassination, bombings, and armed disturbances in border areas since its founding, masterminded and carried out two bombings in Xinjiang in 1993, that left two people dead and 22 others injured.

The East Turkistan Information Centre is said to use the Internet to incite religious extremism and advocate "Jihad' -- or holy war -- by means of violence and terror.

It has plotted and directed terrorist activities targeted at petroleum pipelines, natural gas pipelines, railways and other large civilian infrastructure facilities in China. In March 2003, it plotted bombings along the railway between Lanzhou of Gansu Province and Hami of Xinjiang.

Since the September 11 incident, China has amended various counter terrorism laws, developed and improved counter terrorism co-ordination mechanisms, and adopted a series of measures to prevent acts of terror.

The measures include strengthening control of hazardous substances like explosives, tightening entrance and exit controls and border controls, intensifying security measures at airports, ports and major infrastructures.

"We wish to carry out more co-operations in the future with neighbouring countries and countries where the Eastern Turkistan terrorist organizations go rampant,'' said Zhao.

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