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November 26, 2013

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Terrorist video confirms threat that China faces further attacks

Source: Agencies | November 26, 2013, Tuesday | Print Edition

China faces a serious terror threat, the foreign ministry said yesterday in comments that came after an attack in Beijing last month and domestic media reports of nearly 200 terrorist incidents in its northwest Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region last year.

A group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP) had released a video in the Uygur language by its leader Abdullah Mansour, in which he said the incident in the capital carried out by its mujahideen, or holy warriors, was only the beginning of attacks in China.

The video and its prediction of further violence affirmed the threat that China faces, foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said at a regular briefing.

It “completely revealed this organization’s terrorist nature and made clear the truth of the incident to those who previously questioned its nature,” he said.

Qin identified the organization behind the video as the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, which the United Nations lists as a terrorist group and has separatist aims in Xinjiang.

In the 8 minute, 11 second video, the TIP’s purported head called the Tian’anmen attack a “jihadi operation” and praised the assailants, who included a man, his wife and her mother, as Islamic warriors. He said future attacks could target the Great Hall of the People, China’s legislative seat.

The video was posted on the Internet on November 12 and picked up by the Washington-based SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadist websites.

Qin said the ETIM and the organization that released the video are the same group.

Qin’s comments came as the Shanghai-based Oriental Outlook said more than 190 terrorist attacks were logged in Xinjiang last year, rising “by a significant margin” from 2011.

Violent assaults in the name of “jihad” have been increasing rapidly since 2009 and were the biggest threat to the region, said the magazine, citing local police authorities.

Most of the attackers were in their early 30s or younger and increasingly act in small groups or individually as “a lone wolf,” it added.

China blames the ETIM for the attack on October 28, when a vehicle ploughed through bystanders at Tian’anmen Square and burst into flames, killing the three attackers in the car and two bystanders and injuring 40 others.

Police arrested five suspects who were “radical Islamists planning a holy war.”

The government will continue the assault on this terror group, which has wrought havoc as it has sought to split China, Qin said. He said there could be no “double standards in fighting terrorism,” adding: “We hope relevant countries from here on can increase counter-terrorism coordination and cooperation to jointly safeguard world and regional peace and stability.”

 

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