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.