After July 5 riot in Urumqi of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region that led to death of 197 civilians, some Chinese legal experts suggested the government have more effective anti-terror legislation to curb terrorism activity.
"The riot was planned and provoked by the outside forces of terrorism, separatism and extremism, which signified a long-term and intense fight with them," said Bo Xiao, director of the Legislative Affairs Commission of the Standing Committee of Xinjiang regional People's Congress.
"The riot is a typical terrorist attack. The rioters have adopted violent measures to realize their political intentions, which caused innocent people's deaths and regional panic," Bo said.
China should establish a special law for counter-terrorism in addition to the current less explicit regulations scattered throughout different laws, he added.
In recent years, Xinjiang put to trial many criminal cases concerning terrorist groups, such as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), a separatist group that has been labeled a terrorist organization by the U.N. Security Council as well as the Chinese and U.S. governments.
However, these cases were seldom viewed as terrorism.
Gu Liyan, a research fellow with the Xinjiang academy of social science, said a systematic and comprehensive anti-terrorism law is what the nation needs to fight against terrorism, with clear definition of terrorist crime, terrorists, terrorism activity and a terrorism organization.
Anti-terror organizations should be established as well, with intelligence gathering and exchange channels, and a special judicial process, Gu said.
(Xinhua News Agency July 22, 2009)
