Mon, Oct 08, 2001 page6

• Tension lurks in China's Muslim west

  VOLATILE MIX The attacks on the US threaten to destabilize Xinjiang Province, where Chinese communism meets Muslim tradition with sometimes violent consequences

  • AP
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  As the sun sets, a streetside butcher lays out his prayer mat and bows to Mecca. The sizzle of roasting kebabs fills the air. Women hidden under brown veils haggle with vendors over pomegranates.

  But dark tensions also lurk on these peaceful, if frenetic, streets of Kashgar, an oasis in China's rugged far west. Uighurs, the city's Muslim people, talk of arrests by Chinese security forces. Plainclothes agents keep watch. The shrill yells of drilling soldiers pierce the dusk.

  Now, complicating this volatile mix, come the aftershocks of the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the US. Nowhere do the attacks and their aftermath threaten to be more destabilizing for China than in its western region of Xinjiang bordering Afghanistan, where Chinese communism meets Muslim tradition with sometimes violent consequences.

  

  Muslim Uighur men emerge from the Id Kah mosque after prayers, in Kashgar, in China's western Xinjiang Province on Friday.

  PHOTO: AP

  Skepticism sharpens divisions

  Many Kashgar Muslims are skeptical of US allegations that Osama bin Laden and his radical Islamic followers were responsible for the attacks. Others say they want to see proof of the Saudi-born suspect's involvement before the US retaliates against his protectors, the Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.

  "The Americans are talking rubbish when they say they know who did it. They don't know. None of us know," said Amaijan, a Uighur who uses just one name. He runs a stall selling greeting and invitation cards, including one that features New York's World Trade Center before it was destroyed.

  Such skepticism could sharpen divisions between Uighurs and Beijing as Chinese leaders back the international crackdown on terrorism. Supporting Washington against bin Laden and the Taliban risks alienating Uighurs who already resent Beijing's heavy-handed rule and migration into Xinjiang by Han Chinese, China's dominant ethnic group.

  "We are Muslims. The Afghans are Muslims. Of course, we don't want to see Muslims being attacked," said Mamiti, who sells copperware. "But there's nothing we can do -- the Han control us like this," he said, making a fist. "If we speak out, they arrest us."

  China has qualified its support for Washington by saying that strikes should be carefully targeted against proven terrorists, avoiding innocent casualties. It also wants the UN Security Council, where China has veto power as a permanent council member, to be involved.

  Benefits for Beijing

  But Beijing also stands to benefit from possible US attacks against Afghan terrorist training camps. Uighur militants who occasionally carry out bombings, attacks and assassinations against Chinese rule in Xinjiang have received military training and inspiration from Afghanistan.

  Besides a drop in foreign tourists in the wake of Sept. 11, there is little overt tension on Kashgar's busy streets and in its narrow alleys. The faithful still fill mosques, bazaars bustle with the cries of vendors selling carpets from central Asia, saffron from Iran and henna from India.

  But to keep out unrest, Islamic zealotry and any refugees, Beijing has stationed extra soldiers and tightened checkpoints in the mountains that form Xinjiang's frontier with Afghanistan and Pakistan -- 90km south of Kashgar.

  Human rights campaigners fear China will use the Sept. 11 attacks to justify or intensify its years-long campaign to crush Uighur separatists. Scholars expect China, Russia and four central Asian states that have teamed up against terrorism and religious extremism to share intelligence and work more closely.

  "There are always tensions between Han and Uighurs. Every five or 10 years they make trouble, we round them up and shoot a few. Then they don't make trouble anymore," said Li Chengjia, who moved to Xinjiang four decades ago as a soldier and now drives a taxi in Kashgar.

  "There's a lot of us Han, but only a few of them Uighurs," Li said. "They've got to accept our rule."

  China is also using economic development to tie Xinjiang closer to the rest of the country. A rail link to Kashgar opened two years ago. People's Square in central Kashgar has a new Bank of China building to go with its giant statue of revolutionary leader Mao Tse-tung.

  Islamic radicalism

  "There's a large group of Uighurs who are very happy to be part of China and have seen what's happened in Central Asia -- the economic problems, the civil war in Tajikistan, the problems with Islamic radicalism," said Dru Gladney, an expert on China's Muslims at the University of Hawaii.

  "Many of them are saying: We've got problems here in Xinjiang, but it could be a lot worse."
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