Kashgar, CHINA (AFP)
China has tightened controls on Muslims in its remote west ahead of the Olympic torch's arrival next week to thwart any actions aimed at disrupting the relay, residents and exiles said.
The measures include detaining thousands in the Xinjiang region and forcing Muslim religious officials to undergo "political education" on "protecting" the Olympics, said Dilxat Raxit, spokesman for the Germany-based World Uighur Congress.
With the Beijing Olympic torch expected in Xinjiang on its nationwide tour, authorities have also confiscated the passports of some Muslims, Uighurs told AFP.
"They are afraid people might travel abroad and join some sort of plot against the Olympics," said a college-educated Uighur woman in her twenties, whose passport was taken by police here earlier this year.
Beijing says it faces a separatist Muslim terror threat in Xinjiang, a vast region of deserts and stunning mountain ranges which is home to more than eight million Uighurs, a Central Asian people who have long chafed under Chinese control.
In recent months China has said several Xinjiang-based terror plots have been smashed, including some specifically aimed at the August 8-24 Olympics.
Uighurs dismiss such claims as political cover for what they call decades of repression and policies aimed at extinguishing their culture.
Beijing Olympic organizers recently said the sensitive Xinjiang torch leg would take place June 17-19, a week earlier than planned. But officials would not disclose up-to-date plans amid confusion surrounding sensitive relay legs following violent unrest in Tibet in March.
Activity in Kashgar, an oasis city on the ancient Silk Road, appeared normal at the weekend, with Muslim men quietly streaming in and out of the Id Kah mosque. There was no obvious police presence.
Several Uighurs told AFP they welcomed the torch and disputed suggestions anyone would try to disrupt it.
"The Olympic torch has never been to our city. We are very proud," said a Kashgar taxi driver named Yusup.
The crackdown triggered an attack with rocks and petrol bombs by Uighurs on a police station in the town of Sangong in late May, Raxit said previously.
Local police confirmed the attack when contacted by AFP, but refused further comment. |
