Published by: World Tibet Network News, Wednesday, May 22 1996 (Part I)

By Benjamin Kang Lim

BEIJING, May 20 (Reuter) - A court in China's northwestern region of Xinjiang has jailed a Moslem man for three years for distributing subversive materials amid a campaign to stamp out religious-inspired ``terrorism'' in the mainly Moslem area.

The Urumqi Intermediate Court found Abuduwayiti Aihamati guilty last Tuesday of writing and distributing materials ``with the goal of splitting the unity of the motherland,'' said the Xinjiang Daily in its May 15 edition seen in Beijing on Monday.

He was also convicted of trying to ``overturn the rule of the people's democratic dictatorship,'' it said.

Authorities in Xinjiang have recently ordered a crackdown on separatists whose violent ``terrorist'' activities have killed innocent people in the mostly Moslem region.

Abuduwayiti Aihamati wrote reactionary tracts and also used other methods to ``wantonly'' spread counter-revolutionary -- or subversive -- propaganda in China's capital, Beijing, the newspaper said.

``These actions...constituted inflammatory counter-revolutionary propaganda,'' it said.

However, the court gave Abuduwayiti Aihamati a light sentence for a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death because he had shown repentance, the newspaper said.

The Urumqi court also sentenced to death 10 other people for crimes such as robbery, rape and murder as part of a nationwide ``strike hard'' crackdown on crime, the newspaper said. The executions were carried out on the day of sentencing, it said.

Local religious leaders of the largely Moslem region, meeting in Urumqi last Tuesday, reiterated the Communist Party's stance that ethnic separatism was the biggest threat to stability in Xinjiang, the newspaper said in a separate report.

``Ethnic separatism and illegal religious activities pose the main danger to Xinjiang's stability,'' the meeting was quoted as agreeing, underlining the depth of the Moslem revival in the region of ethnic minorities.

Participants at the meeting ``believed the disruptive activities of a very few ethnic separatists could only end in failure,'' the newspaper said.

China has waged a sometimes brutal campaign to counter religious and ethnic separatism in Xinjiang, using troops to crush uprisings and pressuring surrounding Central Asian republics to crack down on Xinjiang separatists operating from their territory.

Diplomats said a strategic accord China signed last month with Russia, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan to guard against military clashes along its border would help Beijing to combat any surge in Moslem sentiment and separatism in Xinjiang.

Top Xinjiang officials have warned this month of a surge in subversion, bombings and ``terrorist activities'' and warned that extremists were using the cloak of religion to incite ``holy wars.''

They have ordered a crackdown on what they call violent splittists, warning the movement was becoming increasingly organised and calling for vigilance against foreigners using religion to stir up anti-Chinese sentiment in the region that borders three mainly Moslem states of Central Asia as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan.