China executes 100 Moslem rebels after bloody riots
China executes 100 Moslem rebels after bloody riots
BEIJING (Agencies): China has executed around 100 Moslem separatists accused of instigating last week's violent riots in Xinjiang province, residents said yesterday.
More than 1,000 protesters were arrested during and after two days of bloody clashes on Feb. 5 and Feb. 6, in the frontier town of Yining, between ethnic Uighur Moslems and Han Chinese which left 10 dead and several dozen injured, officials said.
Han Chinese account for 37 percent of the population in Xinjiang -- China's only Moslem majority region.
"The trials began on Feb. 6 and six ringleaders were executed the same day," said one non-Han resident in Yining.
Another local source, citing police officials, confirmed the executions had already begun.
"Friends working in the Public Security bureau told me trials have been taking place every day on the outskirts of the town, and that around 100 leaders have already been executed," he said.
A police spokesman in Yining not only refused to confirm the executions, but also denied the riots had even taken place: "Nothing happened here last week."
The reports of mass execution were backed up by exiled Uighur separatist groups operating in neighboring Kazakhstan, whose border is just 50 kilometers north of Yining.
Yusupbek Mukhlisi, leader of the United National Revolutionary Front of East Turkestan, said the riot was sparked by the execution of 30 Uighurs in China last week.
Chinese officials dismissed the report.
In a related development, police said they had arrested the riot's ringleader; Abudu Heilili, 29, of the Uighur ethnic minority, was under police interrogation.
The suspect was unemployed, and a ringleader of a less violent anti-Chinese demonstration in Yining in August 1995, the official said.
Severe punishment
Authorities issued circulars earlier this week calling on local officials to deal a blow to separatism in the frontier region and warning of severe punishment for rioters.
"We are resolved to deal a blow to the handful of ethnic separatist elements," said Zhang Youlian, deputy director of foreign affairs office for the Yili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture, that administers Yining.
During the riots, Uighur demonstrators had attacked Han Chinese with bricks, clubs and knives, and rampaged through the town, smashing and setting fire to about 20 vehicles and looting shops.
The People's Armed Police only succeeded in dispersing the rioters a day later, firing teargas to break up the crowd.
Authorities had sealed off Yining, an after-dark curfew was in force in some districts and armed police still patrolled the streets.
A Chinese source said the riot erupted after a Uighur criminal suspect resisted police arrest.
Xinjiang authorities last year stepped up a crackdown on separatists and underground religious activity after clashes, bombings and assassination attempts on officials and Moslem leaders regarded as pro-Beijing.
Yesterday the Al Bilad newspaper, close to the Saudi government, expressed concern over events in Xianjing and urged Western human rights groups to intervene.
"Western human rights organizations which criticize the Chinese government for its attacks on freedom of expression would do better to worry about the suffering of Moslems whose rights are violated," the newspaper said.