Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS May 20, 1997

Hong Kong AFP, 05/11/97

Urumqi, China, May 11 (AFP) -- The government chief of Xinjiang

admitted here Sunday that a fundamentalist Muslim party in the troubled

northwestern region was fighting for independence from China.

Abdulahat Abdurixit, the region's chairman, also revealed that the

trial of those responsible for Urumqi bus bombings at the end of

February that killed nine and injured 74 "had begun."

"The Party of Allah is a small fundamentalist organisation that takes

part in illegal religious activities to divide China," said the top

official in the Muslim- majority region, which has been hit by a series

of bomb attacks and other separatist unrest in recent months. The

statement, made to journalists in this regional capital, was the first

official acknowledgment of an organised separatist movement.

China fiercely suppresses groups resisting its rule in

ethnic-minority-dominated border areas like Xinjiang and Tibet and

normally keeps a tight lid on information about their activities or

existence. Abdurixit said the party was formed last year by people

from all over Xinjiang, which was why it could carry out operations in

any part of the vast region. "However we have put them out of a

position to cause damage before they have even started to act," he

said, without elaborating.

Asked about the size of the fundamentalist movement, the governor said

it included "less than one in 10,000 of Xinjiang's 16 million

residents" -- indicating around 1,600 anti-Chinese militants.

Such groups "would never be able to turn themselves into an important

force, and the government can control them easily," said the leader, a

member of the Uighur ethnic group that dominates Xinjiang. Abdurixit

announced that "all those implicated" in the Urumqi bus bombings had

been arrested and that their trials "had begun."

Those arrested in connection with the attacks numbered "around 10" and

were all Young Uighurs, he said, adding they came from the northern and

southern parts of the region. All were previously involved in

"terrorist acts," he said. "To date, there is no indication that they

received foreign support," the governor said.

Muslim separatists from Xinjiang have been known to seek exile in

neighbouring former Soviet republics -- Kazakhstan in particular --

which are also home to growing fundamentalist movements.

China has repeatedly warned foreign countries against harbouring or

supporting "terrorists" from the region. Abdurixit said that clashes

between Chinese security forces and Uighur separatists on February 5

and 6 in the border town of Yining were sparked "by illegal

demonstrations."

"These very violent demonstrators cried out for an Islamic kingdom,"

the governor said. The clashes left 10 to 100 people killed, according

to reports, and at least three others were executed for their role in

the uprising.

The indigenous population of Xinjiang has resisted Chinese rule for

centuries, but the arrival of Han-majority settlers in large numbers

since China re-took control of the region in 1950 has exacerbated

tensions. A short-lived independent state called East Turkestan had

been established in the region during the chaos of China's civil war.

Authorities have suppressed separatist activities under cover of a

series of "anti-crime" campaigns in recent years, as well as by

cracking down on the practice of religion -- seen in Beijing as a force

behind pro-independence sentiment.