Guangdong on top terror alert as growing number of Uygurs move to Middle East for training
Guangdong police ramp up security after intelligence on a possible attack as more Uygurs leave Xinjiang for conflict zones in Middle East
PUBLISHED : Friday, 10 July, 2015, 11:43pm
UPDATED : Friday, 10 July, 2015, 11:47pm
Staff Reporters
Turkish police stand guard as a group of Uygur protesters demonstrate outside the Thai embassy in Ankara. Photo: AP
Police in Guangdong are on top security alert against possible terrorist attacks, two independent sources close to the police say.
The increase in security comes amid ethnic tensions in Xinjiang, which have spilled over into violent attacks in other parts of the country in the past few years, and a warning from a prominent counterterrorism expert that the growing number of Uygurs moving to the Middle East for training by terrorist groups poses a "very significant threat" to China.
Exiled Uygurs and human rights groups have complained of repressive government policies on culture and religion in Xinjiang, as well as economic marginalisation by the country's dominant Han ethnicity.
But Beijing accuses Uygur separatists of terrorism that has left hundreds of people dead over the past two years.
Earlier this year, a leaked police document revealed that human smugglers were helping Uygurs flee the mainland via coastal Guangdong, indicating that the province had overtaken the mountainous and tightly guarded western frontier as the preferred route out of China.
The sources said Guangdong's heightened security level was prompted by a tip-off of a possible terror attack.
One source said the province had been on the higher security footing at least since early this week, while the other said it was expected to remain in place over the weekend. Guangdong has become a springboard for Uygurs heading for the Middle East via Southeast Asia, including Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.
About 600 Uygurs from Xinjiang had moved to Syria and Iraq, according to Rohan Gunaratna, head of the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research at Nanyang Technological University.
Gunaratna said Uygurs who moved to the conflict zones of Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan posed a higher risk to China because they had joined either al-Qaeda or Islamic State, the notorious Sunni Islamist militant group that burst onto the international scene last year when it seized large swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq. "In the past two decades, China faced a sustained threat from the Turkistan Islamic Party trained by al-Qaeda. In the future, China will face a threat from al-Qaeda and IS, primarily by the Uygurs trained by these two groups," he said.
He called for Beijing to take a two-fold approach to deal with its ethnic conflict: developing better intelligence, and stronger friendship and partnership with the leaders of the Uygur community.
"A mere law-and-enforcement and intelligence-level response will not help to reduce the threat to China. It must go beyond this and engage the [Uygur] community," he said.
International attention has again focused on China's treatment of its ethnic minorities after Thailand announced on Thursday that about 100 Uygurs detained in the country since last year had been deported to China, igniting angry protests in Turkey outside the Thai embassy and consulate, which were forced to close yesterday.
Citing China's Ministry of Public Security, Global Times - a tabloid newspaper affiliated with Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily - accused Turkey of interfering in China's crackdown on illegal immigration.
"According to [human smugglers'] confessions, Turkish embassies, consulates general and related agencies in Southeast Asia … knowingly processed proof of citizenship and issued passports and travel documents to Chinese people from Xinjiang," the report said.
"They even falsely claimed these Uygurs were their citizens and openly rescued and took them away."
Some 170 Uygurs detained in Thailand were sent to Turkey in late June, after Thai authorities verified their nationality as Turkish, reports said.
The Turkish embassy in Beijing said it could not immediately comment on the report. The Ministry of Public Security did not respond to a request for comment.
Gunaratna agreed that Turkey played a role in the movement of Uygurs, saying the Turkish embassy in Kuala Lumpur gave passports to a few hundred Uygurs, many of whom had settled in Turkey.
Dilxat Rexit, a spokesman for the Germany-based World Uygur Congress, said the Global Times report distorted the facts and reasons prompting Uygurs to flee Xinjiang.
"I admit that a few Uygurs might take part in terrorist attacks, but they can't represent all Uygurs; there are many zealots from many countries going to join terrorists," he said.
"Beijing is trying to distort the fact that many Uygurs have decided to flee Xinjiang because they can't stand the systematic oppression by the Chinese authorities."
He said there were signs that the repatriated Uygurs would face serious charges in order to satisfy Beijing's political needs.
