China opposes all terrorist activities?and?will work
closely with the international community to combat terrorism, the
Ministry of Public Security said yesterday.
Ministry spokesman Wu Heping said this at a news briefing after
police in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region reported on
Monday that they'd killed 18 terrorists and arrested 17 others
during a Friday raid?on a training camp of the East Turkistan
Islamic Movement (ETIM). One policeman was killed and another
injured during the raid.
Wu said China opposed "all forms of terrorism" and that its
anti-terrorism effort included prevention, offensive action and
more international cooperation.
The UN and the US listed the ETIM, which is pursuing an
independent "Eastern Turkistan," as a terrorist group in 2002, and
according to Xinhua News Agency, over 1,000 of its members are
believed to have received training from Al-Qaida. The Ministry of
Public Security placed it on a list of "East Turkistan" terrorist
organizations in 2003.
Official data shows that the group plotted over 200 violent
incidents, including explosions, assassinations, arson, poisonings
and assaults in Xinjiang and in other countries between 1990 and
2001, killing 162 people and injuring 440.
Other identified "East Turkistan" terrorist organizations are
the East Turkistan Liberation Organization, the World Uygur Youth
Congress and the East Turkistan Information Center, according to
the ministry.
Wu said the Criminal Law, the State Security Law, the Shanghai
Convention on Combating Terrorism, Separatism and Extremism, 11
international conventions adopted by the UN and ratified by China
and a series of anti-terrorism agreements adopted by the UN
Security Council provided the legal guidelines used by the
government to identify terrorists and their organizations.
(China Daily January 10, 2007)