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Divided China region plays down terrorism threat

Society Materials 1 August 2008 15:59 (UTC +04:00)

A top official from China's ethnically divided far western region of Xinjiang on Friday played down the threat of terrorism and said he was confident that security forces were capable of preventing any attacks during the Olympics, reported dpa.

"To be frank, I wish to say that at the moment in Xinjiang there are only a limited number of sabotage activities by 'East Turkestan' forces or groups," Kurexi Maihesuti, the vice-chairman of the Xinjiang regional government, told reporters.

East Turkestan is the name for Xinjiang used by independence activists from the Uighur and other non-Chinese ethnic groups in the region.

"These terrorists groups are not at all as capable as some media organizations have said," Kurexi Maihesuti said.

He said many groups were "only lawless people" who were "not capable of instigating a massive sabotage activity".

He said Xinjiang had experienced "a very small number of sabotage activities, and many of them have been stopped in the early days".

The government had made "adequate preparations against possible terrorist attacks" during the Olympics, Kurexi Maihesuti said.

"With our experience in dealing with terrorists, especially the East Turkestan Islamic Movement over the past years, we are confident that we can thwart any terrorist activities in time," he said.

He denied that China's massive security operation was an overreaction and said such a high-level of security was required for the Olympics.

The government would continue to "severely crack down" on terrorists and "other anti-China forces at home and abroad, so long as they engage in sabotage activities or any kind of destabilization", he said.

Controversy has long surrounded the level of terrorist threat from Uighur groups in Xinjiang.

"The government has been very worried about the security situation there," Dru Gladney, a US-based expert on Xinjiang, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa last week.

But Gladney said the level of threat in Xinjiang did not appear to have increased in proportion to China's security measures.

"It's always hard to tell from outside the region," he said.

"They have limited access to the region by journalists and scholars, so it is really hard to know exactly what's going on," Gladney said.

"Most people feel that there have not been that many serious incidents to warrant that high level of security in the region," he said.

The IntelCenter, a US-based security monitoring group, last week said it had seen a video purporting to be from the largely unknown Turkestan Islamic Party, in which armed and masked men claimed responsibility for several small bombs in China in recent weeks and threatened attacks during the Olympics.

Chinese police said the claims for responsibility for the small explosions - including two bombs on buses in south-western China and a blast at a workshop in the southern city of Guangzhou - were not credible.

But last month, China claimed to have arrested 82 suspected terrorists in Xinjiang for "allegedly plotting sabotage against the Beijing Olympics" while authorities said in March that separatists had attempted to blow up an airliner.

It has mounted an unprecedented show of security in the run-up to the Olympics, with regular helicopter patrols over Beijing and anti-aircraft missiles placed close to the Olympic Green.

China has also taken advice from the FBI and other international security organizations.

On Friday, the government took a group of foreign journalists to visit a base of the People's Liberation Army's 6th Armoured Division, described by state media as an 8,000-strong unit that is "one of the major forces safeguarding Beijing's security".

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