China vowed yesterday to step up security for the Beijing Olympics, warning of an unprecedented threat to the Games amid reports that two “terrorists” were executed in the mainly Muslim far northwest.
With up to 80 heads of state expected to attend the Aug. 8 opening ceremony, China said it was faced with a “huge responsibility” to defend its own people, Olympic athletes and visiting dignitaries.
Rioting and looting in Tibet this year and recent police battles with “terrorist groups” in the far northwest Xinjiang region were evidence of real threats to sabotage the Games, the leading People’s Daily said in an editorial.
PHOTO: AFP
“As far as China is concerned, the international situation and the political environment is becoming increasingly complicated by the day, and the dark clouds of terrorism on our borders are a fact that cannot be ignored,” it said.
“Up until the present, we know there will be 80 heads of state attending the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony — as the host nation, we are faced with unprecedented pressure and a huge responsibility,” the paper said.
The commentary defended massive security efforts that have resulted in a missile battery being placed outside the main Olympic Stadium, as well as a raft of new regulations restricting the movement of people and goods.
“These incidents [in Tibet and Xinjiang] show... that the Beijing Olympics is facing a terrorist threat unsurpassed in Olympic history,” the People’s Daily said.
The paper said the threat had become more real, “especially as the peaceful protests of anti-China forces like those linked to ‘democracy movements’ outside the nation become violent attacks by Tibetan and Xinjiang separatists.”
Ongoing crackdowns in Tibet and Xinjiang have been motivated by Olympic security concerns, the government has said.
According to US-based Radio Free Asia, two minority Uighur Muslims convicted of terrorist and separatist activities were executed last week in Xinjiang. Fifteen others were jailed for similar crimes.
China announced last week that 82 “suspected terrorists” had been detained there this year for allegedly plotting to sabotage the Olympics.
State press also said last week that police had shot dead five knife-wielding Muslims and detained 10 others in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, who allegedly wanted to launch a “holy war.”
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