BEIJING | Chinese police called Tuesday for the extradition of eight purported separatists accused of plotting a campaign of terror to coincide with the Beijing Olympics - a scheme that reportedly included bomb attacks within China and in unspecified countries in the Middle East and South Asia.
A Public Security Ministry spokesman said the eight men, all Chinese citizens, were believed to have financed, incited and organized attacks during and around the Aug. 8-24 games as part of an ongoing insurgency against Chinese rule in the traditionally Muslim west.
Wu Heping told reporters at a news briefing that the men were members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a murky collection of extremists thought to be based across the border in lawless areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The eight “seriously threatened the security of the Beijing Olympic Games and China’s social stability, while at the same time composing a threat to the security and stability of relevant countries and the region,” Mr. Wu said.
He did not say in what country the men were suspected of hiding and left the briefing without taking questions.
He said one of the men planned to bomb a supermarket popular with Chinese business people in an unspecified Middle Eastern country ahead of the opening of the Olympic Games. Another suspect had prepared to attack a Chinese club in a South Asian nation, he said, without giving details.
The men also organized numerous attacks within China but it was not clear from Mr. Wu’s statement if any of them were carried out.
After years of relative quiet, the western region of Xinjiang was rocked in August by a series of guerrilla-style attacks and bombings that killed 33 people.
The violence was reportedly carried out by radicals among Xinjiang’s native Uighur ethnic group, Muslims whose language, culture and religion are distinct from China’s Han majority. Like Tibetans, many Uighurs complain of a colonial-style Chinese presence in their territory, chafing under tight religious and cultural strictures and complain that economic development has disproportionately benefited Chinese migrants.
Radical Uighurs opposed to Chinese rule have long waged a low-intensity campaign of bombings and assassinations against Chinese officials. But terrorism experts say the struggle has taken a deadlier, more radical turn in recent years through exposure to global terror groups such as al Qaeda.
Seventeen Chinese Uighurs have been held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, since their capture in Pakistan and Afghanistan in 2001 despite having been deemed nonthreatening and cleared for release.
China has demanded the detainees be repatriated, but Washington has refused to do so because of fears they will be tortured and executed. Albania accepted five Uighur detainees in 2006 but since has balked at taking others, partly for fear of diplomatic repercussions from China.
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