Aug 04
(Letter) Terrorist attack in Xinjiang ahead of Olympics
Written by guest on Monday, August 4th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Filed under:-mini-posts, News | Tags:terrorism, uighur
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Filed under:-mini-posts, News | Tags:terrorism, uighur
Add comments
BEIJING – Two men rammed a dump truck into a group of jogging policemen and then tossed explosives into their barracks Monday, killing 16 officers…
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August 4th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
‘Speaking before Monday’s attack, Rebiya Kadeer, president of the Uyghur American Association, said there was no credible evidence that Uighurs posed a significant terrorist threat.
“I call on the US government and the international community to condemn China’s manipulation of terror threats to kill and intimidate Uighurs on the eve of the Olympic Games,” she said in a press release.
Ms Kadeer, who herself spent time in a Chinese prison, claims Uighurs suffer a broad range of human rights abuses in Xinjiang…’
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7540616.stm
August 5th, 2008 at 1:50 am
The Chinese government must be so stupid that it will “manupulate the terror threats”….
August 5th, 2008 at 2:17 am
Perhaps there is some context which would inform us what Ms. Qadir is getting at when she says that “there is no credible evidence that Uighurs posed a significant terrorist threat”. Within in any group of people, there are a variety of personality types: some are criminals, others are kind, etc. I’ll wager that terrorists are a minority of the population in any society.
Would it make sense to say that Americans do not pose a significant terrorist threat? Significant in what way? Some Americans are terrorists even vis a vis attacking other Americans. Was the Oklahoma City bombing insignificant? Were the anthrax mailings insignificant? And yet, it would hardly sound right to say that Americans are a significant terrorist threat to each other, since the vast majority of Americans hate and fear terrorist attacks against American targets. The question itself seems irrelevant, so I assume Ms. Qadir must have meant something different.
August 5th, 2008 at 5:20 am
The MSNBC report didn’t mention the ethnicity of the two men.
August 5th, 2008 at 6:35 am
According to People’s Daily, both assailants have been apprehended at the scene. One man was a taxi driver, the other a street vendor. Ages were 28 and 33. Homemade explosives, a gun, knives, and jihadist materials were found with them.
August 5th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
For the first time, as a Chinese, we feel the terrorist threat… before Olympics, we likely to feel the terror force is specially against Americans, for those who hate American Imperials, they are even feels friendly to Chinese, now… Olympics does change something… for ever … and for the better?
August 5th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200808a.brief.htm#013
August 5th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
When Rebiya Kadeer says that the Uyghurs pose no significant threat reminds me when the Dalai Lama says how innocent those Tibetans are after they burned, looted and killed people in Lhasa.
August 5th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
Now two days after the event, what differentiates this story from any other rumour?
August 5th, 2008 at 2:24 pm
FYI:
“Police, who suspect a terrorist plot behind the incident, arrested both attackers and identified them as two Uygur men, ages 28 and 33.”
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/08/05/china.attacks/index.html
August 5th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
JD,
It’s not a rumor, it did happen.
Here is more info on the incident.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26027195/
August 5th, 2008 at 3:14 pm
spiked: Yesterday’s massacre of Chinese police officers highlights the dangers behind the international politicisation of the Olympics.
“… The timing of it is particularly striking. Just four days before the start of the Olympic Games, as the world’s eyes are on China, an alleged Uighur cell launches its most audacious attack in over a decade. According to one expert, Uighur Muslims have not launched any serious attacks in their ‘sporadically violent rebellion’ since 1998; now they have executed ‘the deadliest attack on Chinese forces in a decade’
Perhaps they have taken their cue from the vast international line-up of government officials, political outfits, NGOs and radical activists who have transformed this week’s Games into an opportunity to ‘humiliate China’. ”
http://www.spiked-online.com/index.php?/site/article/5550/
August 5th, 2008 at 3:32 pm
I am baffled by terrorists. Dont know what to say about them, except they are bad dudes.
On the other hand, is the Olympics a good thing or bad thing for China. I think it is a good thing in that it gives China a timely “stress test”, exposing the cracks in the Chinese society, before they are beyond repair. I am already in the Post-Olympics mindset. I am eager to see what happens to China in general and my overly sentimental hometown in particular will become after the testosterone charged Olympians are gone.
August 5th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
Well, these recent bus blasts and attack incidents have been interesting in that we’re hearing about them. In the not too distant past, China would probably not have reported on such local events, so I can’t exactly tell if they are happening with more regularity now or what… In any case, this is certainly a serious incident.
On the other hand, let’s keep things in perspective. Just in the last two weeks, India had two dozen bombings in multiple cities blamed on terrorists.
August 5th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
Here’s another article on it:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=azxs8OJ2M1W8
Aug. 5 (Bloomberg) — Officials in Kashgar in western China apologized to Japanese reporters who were detained yesterday after an attack on a border patrol station in the city by members of the Uighur ethnic group, state media reported.
August 5th, 2008 at 5:31 pm
Nimrod #14,
I agree, it was my impression that news coverage of these incidents would be downplayed or suppressed not a while back.
August 5th, 2008 at 7:01 pm
The latest is the two attackers are local residents of Kashgar, not from cross the border.
But I am sure the authorities are busy checking if they have any connection to foreign terrorist groups
Also, I feel extremely bad for the parents of the falling soldiers. It can be safely assumed those young kids were the only child of their parents, I can’t even imagine the grieves the parents must be experiencing now.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:08 pm
Right now, this is a politically-charged rumour in a politically-charged region at a politically-sensitive moment. Everyone knows Xinhua is not reliable and this story is no different. Two men in police uniforms apparently did something, and Xinhua reports 16 dead. Foreign reporters have been arrested, beaten, made to delete photos. So far, the story isn’t adding up.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
So JD… what will it be? ignored prior warnings? or something about a grassy knoll?
August 5th, 2008 at 11:34 pm
JD,
Well my info, along with others here, are from “western” sources and they have boots on the ground to confirm the incident. I’m not sure what you are getting at.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:46 pm
JD, do you have proof the Chinese government staged this terrorist attack?
I have proof Uyghur American Association gets funding from the US government via the NED:
http://www.ned.org/grants/06programs/grants-asia06.html
See the specific grant section for China (Xinjiang), UAA is the largest grant reciepient.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:50 pm
@JD
Whom do you think would benefit from this incident/rumour(or whatever you think) which high light another “suppressed” region/people in China at this moment while almost every mainstream western media is complaining of the pollution and trying to find any dissident and any protest in Beijing. I am not sure why Chinese goverment/xinhua want more trouble at this stage. to justify the security measure in Beijing?
August 5th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
Other sources are also cited by Boxun, the un-Xinhua:
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200808a.brief.htm#011
Unless those regularly cite Boxun and HK-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy, no longer believe them.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:07 am
Sino Federation,
Perhaps these attackers took their cue from the Chinese government’s violent suppression of the Uighurs? Or perhaps they took their cue from playing too many violent video games? “Perhaps they have taken their cue from …” is the express route to sloppy thinking.
August 6th, 2008 at 12:30 am
Otto, I’m suprised Kadeer didn’t condem the attack, if the people planned/carried out the attack were in fact Uygher (still have not seen any such confirmation from *credible* Western source.)
But imagine some militia spokesperson trying to explain away Tim McVeigh or Arab American leader making excuse for Osama Bin Ladin… How would Americans feel about that?
August 6th, 2008 at 3:04 am
you ppl must be crazy if you think this is the 1st time Uyghers kill Hans for racial hate, I had friend in XinJiang, they used to tell me all these scary shit stories. Basially in some places it’s like Jews and Palestinians, if you made a wrong turn, u are dead.
August 6th, 2008 at 3:04 am
‘A Polish couple who witnessed the assault from the Yiquan Hotel described the scene as “sickening,” AFP reported.
As many as 18 “foreign agitators” have been arrested in Xinjiang in connection to an earlier incident of unrest, Reuters reported today, citing Kashgar’s Communist Party chief Shi Dagang, without elaborating.
Kashgar police have set up road blocks to check passengers, bags and vehicles, according to Xinhua. Armed traffic police have been patrolling buses in Urumqi since early July, Xinhua reported.
The Uighur people — also spelt Uyghur — condemn all acts of violence, the AFP reported yesterday, citing Rebiya Kadeer, president of the Washington D.C.-based Uyghur American Association. She urged caution in evaluating the Chinese government’s reports of terrorist attacks by the group because the government routinely fails to provide evidence to back such reports, the AFP said.’
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20670001&refer=home&sid=acynhg_h0D.k
August 6th, 2008 at 7:41 am
Even without details about who perpetrated the attack, such acts must be forcefully condemned. This is not like 3/14, however; this is 2 guys trying to make a point, even though I’m not sure what that point would be.
On the one hand, it is encouraging that China is openly reporting something negative at such a sensitive time. On the other hand, there must be so many foreign journalists running around right now that the government must have figured it would be better to get ahead of the story, rather than react to it. But on the third hand, it occurred in such a remote part of China and so far away from the action that maybe foreign reporters may not have broken the story on their own…
I’m somewhat surprised that those 2 perpetrators allowed themselves to get caught. It would seem that self-respecting jihadists would’ve martyred themselves.
August 6th, 2008 at 9:18 am
All terrorist attacks should be condemned, but it is important to keep your cool, regardless which country we are talking about. Both in China and the US, there is a tendency to exaggerate terrorists threats and people’s imagination run wild to the point of forgetting about real dangers that we all face every day. In most countries, including China, it is very unusual to be killed by a terrorist. If we consider the limited resources of any government, one of the most important things the Chinese government could do to prevent unnecessary causalities is to improve traffic safety, which is one of the biggest problems in China today.
August 6th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
I’m just pointing out the obvious. Xinhua has no existing base of credibility, the story has important contradictions, foreign journalists have been prevented from taking a closer look, even certain officials are downplaying it. Scrutiny is in order.
No reasonable observer could draw complex conclusions from the information available so far. The conspiracy theorists who have so quickly explained the incident with so little information apparently work for Xinhua.
August 6th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
JD,
I think you are taking this a bit too far and seeing shadows that aren’t there. A quick glance at the sources being cited here will show you people on this thread are overwhelmingly using western sources.
August 7th, 2008 at 10:46 am
yo, you may want to actually read those articles as you are seeing things that aren’t there. Most media are simply reporting based on Xinhua as source and are polite but duly circumspect. The exception are the reports of foreign journalists being arrested and beaten, or forced to destroy pictures. Are the authorities concerned that foreign media will actually confirm what Xinhua has reported? Or are they worried about the embarrassment if they don’t. Take your pick, it’s a rumour either way.
Everyone, including those within China, knows that Xinhua is a dubious source with a political objective. Ignorance is not bliss.
August 7th, 2008 at 3:40 pm
JD,
Whatever you want to believe.
August 11th, 2008 at 3:24 am
More bad news, a second attack today in Kuqa, again in 南疆, or Southern Xinjiang.
“New Spasm of Violence in Western China as 11 Die in Wave of Bombings”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/11/world/asia/11xinjiang.html?ref=sports