Published by: World Tibet Network News, Sunday, Jun 09, 1996

By Jane Macartney

BEIJING, June 6, 1996, (Reuter) - China's Inner Mongolia region has issued a warning against separatism, echoing similar campaigns under way against pro-independence movements in Muslim Xinjiang and Buddhist Tibet.

The appeal to beware of separatists in Inner Mongolia comes amid warnings in the mainly Muslim region of Xinjiang that underground religious activities and "terrorism" by splittists is the most severe threat facing authorities.

"We must raise the awareness of ethnic cadres and the masses to safeguard the unity of the people," Liu Mingzu, Communist Party secretary and the top official in Inner Mongolia, said in a speech carried in the Inner Mongolia Daily edition of June 3, available in Beiijng Thursday.

"Increasing the ability to distinguish right from wrong will reduce the market for ethnic splittist activities and help the broad masses of the people realise that safeguarding the sovereignty and unity of all nationalities is the supreme interest of the Chinese nation," Liu was quoted as saying.

Inner Mongolia's people should resolutely attack those hostile splittist forces with Western backing that were trying to destroy the unity of the motherland, Liu warned.

However, Liu tempered his call with a reminder to officials not to view the attack on splittists as a pretext for spreading a movement beyond strict limits.

Inner Mongolia is populated mainly by ethnic Mongolians but there has been little sign of anti-Chinese unrest since the early years after the 1949 communist takeover and the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution when dissent was crushed.

However, late last year authorities in Inner Mongolia arrested a group of about 12 people who had demanded more democracy as well as a separate autonomous region.

Police had accused the group of taking part in a counter-revolutionary, or subversive organization, that aimed to engage in ethnically divisive activities, human rights groups said.

Inner Mongolia has traditionally been less restive than Xinjiang and Tibet.

Chinese officials in Xinjiang called last week for a "Great Wall of steel" against Muslim separatists.

The frontier region that borders Afghanistan, Pakistan and three mostly Muslim Central Asian states has been shaken in recent weeks by several clashes and political killings involving separatists who want to end Chinese rule in Xinjiang.

A Chinese court last month sentenced six Tibetans to up to five years in prison for demanding independence.

China has in recent months stepped up its battle against pro-independence activists and has tightened controls on temples and monasteries in the deeply Buddhist region.