Unrest under control, says Xinjiang chairman

AFP, South China Morning Post, Friday 9 March 2001

The head of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region claimed yesterday that ethnic unrest and separatism were under control. A tiny minority of separatists, aided by foreign forces, were active, but the vast majority of people wanted nothing to do with them, he said.

It's an extremely small minority, Abulahat Abdurixit said in Beijing on the sidelines of the annual plenum of the NPC. Xinjiang's people know that Xinjiang needs stability. If there's no stability, Xinjiang doesn't have the conditions to develop.

Mr Abdurixit, chairman of the regional government, said separatists were receiving assistance from international terrorists and other foreign forces. It's certain that separatists in Xinjiang have received help from home and abroad, but I can't give concrete details about which countries are involved, he said.

A vehicle exploded in the region's capital of Urumqi on September 8 last year, killing 60 and injuring more than 300. Premier Zhu Rongji was visiting Urumqi at the time.

In what appeared to be a concerted attempt to forestall unwanted speculation, government officials and media rushed to say the blast happened when a vehicle transporting explosives went down a bumpy road. The final conclusion is that the blast was caused by an accident, and had no link to separatism, Mr Abdurixit said yesterday.

While Mr Abdurixit and other officials paint a picture of relative quiet in Xinjiang, more and more ethnic Han Chinese are settling there. They made up 39 per cent of Xinjiang's 18.3 million population last year, he said. The figure marks a rise from 36 per cent, cited by several publications in the late 1990s. Predominantly Islamic minorities made up the rest, with Turkic-speaking Uygurs amounting to about eight million last year, he said.

Mr Abdurixit said rapid development in Xinjiang's economy and improving living standards had convinced many of the need for a stable environment. Official media reported in January that the annual per capita net income of Xinjiang farmers was 1,620 yuan (HK$1,522) last year, up 47 per cent on five years earlier. The average net income of rural residents in the country as a whole last year was 2,253 yuan.