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Uighur dissident accused of plotting with terrorists

China has accused a prominent exiled Muslim Uighur dissident of plotting with "terrorist groups" to disrupt the anniversary next month of the takeover of the Xinjiang region, state press said yesterday.

The region's top communist party official also accused Rebiya Kadeer, 58, of attempting to smuggle her assets out of China and leaving behind debts of about 50 million yuan (US$6 million), Xinhua news agency reported.

Kadeer, in exile in the United States, was released from a Chinese jail in March on medical parole after being jailed for six years for leaking "state secrets".

She is a top advocate for the rights of China's Muslim Uighur minority in Xianjiang. Uighur separatists have been fighting to re-establish an independent state called East Turkestan in Xinjiang since it became part of China in 1955.

Xinjiang's top communist official Wang Lequan said Kadeer had been plotting attacks targeted at the October 1 anniversary of China's takeover of Xinjiang, the Xinhua news agency said.

"Rebiya had met with heads of terrorist groups abroad to plot to sabotage the celebration for the 50th anniversary of the founding of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region," he said in a Xinhua report.

Wang urged the government to deal with what he alleged were Kadeer's remaining debts and attempts to smuggle out her assets.

"If her assets were smuggled out of the country and if these debts went unpaid, it will severely harm social stability," Wang said. "So the government must deal with this issue."

Kadeer has 11 children, several of whom remain in Xinjiang and have managed a business empire their mother set up before she was jailed.
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