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Army's Games terror threat warning

M

Melvin_Tan

Guest
Army's Games terror threat warning
38 minutes ago

A Chinese army officer has warned that Islamic separatists are the biggest threat to the Olympics.

At a rare briefing one week ahead of the opening of the games, Colonel Tian Yixiang from the Olympics security command centre told reporters the biggest threat came from "the East Turkestan terrorist organisation" - a jihadist group seeking to establish an Islamic state in China's far western region of Xinjiang.

A secondary threat came from Tibetan separatists who the government accused of orchestrating a wave of violent protests in western China in the spring, Colonel Tian said.

"These forces are trying all means to sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games," Colonel Tian said, adding that a force of 34,000 soldiers has been positioned in Beijing and other Olympic host cities such as Shanghai to guard against such threats.

However, the deputy governor of the Xinjiang accused journalists of exaggerating the terrorist threat to the games.

"These terrorist groups are not as capable as some media organisations have claimed or broadcast," Kurexi Maihesuti told reporters in Beijing.

New terrorist concerns were prompted last week by videotaped threats purporting to be from an Islamic militant group claiming responsibility for explosions in four cities in western China in recent months, including two bus bombings in the city of Kunming that left two people dead and 14 injured.

But Mr Maihesuti said many of those labelled terrorists were merely "lawless people."

Human rights groups have long accused Beijing of classifying many personal disputes or criminal acts as terrorism to justify harsh oppression.

Chinese authorities claim to have foiled a series of plots by members of Xinjiang's main Uighur ethnic group that it says targeted the Olympics, detaining 82 alleged Islamic terrorists and separatists in a major crackdown.
 
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