Long fight seen against Xinjiang separatists

By Mary Kwang, The Straits Times, 16 August 2000

Economic progress and improved living standards will not soften the rebels, whom authorities claim do not represent the will of the majority.

URUMQI -- The fight against separatists seeking to split Xinjiang from China would be a long-term cause, said the top city official of Urumqi, the capital of the Uighur-dominated region.

Mr Nur Bakry, the mayor of Urumqi, told visiting foreign journalists at a press conference earlier this week that economic progress and improved living standards might not sway such elements from their goal of independence.

Beijing has been combatting rebels in Xinjiang since before the communists came to power in China in 1949.

Although Urumqi has grown from an 8-sq-km town of fewer than 100,000 people five decades ago to a city of over 1.8 million people today, and the authorities have arrested and imposed the death penalty on subversives, periodic violent incidents, including bombings, still occur in the city.

However, Mr Nur, 39, who is an atheist and member of the Chinese Communist Party, unlike the great majority of those in his Uighur ethnic group who are Muslims, played down the separatist menace.

He said the subversives were a tiny group who did not represent the will of the people in Xinjiang.

The Xinjiang people will not allow this small group to undermine their peaceful lives. This is an unpopular cause which will not succeed.

In another press conference, Mr Abulait Abudurexit, chairman of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, said it was not strange that separatist activities had broken out in the region.

Such activities have taken place elsewhere too, like in Russia.

He said that those fighting for Xinjiang's break from China were locals supported by foreign elements.

Nevertheless, Mr Abulait maintained that the region was secure.

In the past, separatist activities have taken place in southern and northern Xin- jiang...but Xinjiang is still stable.

That there was no unrest in the region could be deduced from the number of delegations from other parts of China, as well as foreign visitors flocking in, he said.

He said 220,000 foreign tourists visited Xinjiang last year. In the year to date, the number has crossed 180,000.

Some analysts say China has tried to defuse the Uighur separatist threat in Xinjiang by drawing increasing numbers of Han Chinese to the region.

Asked if this strategy would increase resentment against the Hans among ethnic minorities, Mr Abulait said: The deployment of the Han Chinese will bring benefits. This meets the needs of development.

He said economic conditions would be improved in southern Xinjiang, where ethnic minorities are concentrated.

On the drawing board for the south are plans for road and rail networks, increased water and electricity supply, and measures to beat desertification in the arid area.

People will say that without the Communist Party, life would not be as good as it is today, he said.