Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS, June 23, 1997

South China Morning Post, 6/20/97

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE in Almaty Visits by the Chinese Defence Minister have undermined the confidence of Uygur exile groups in the countries bordering Xinjiang to support their struggle for independence in northwestern China.

_We are not counting anymore on Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan to help us in the fight for the independence of Xinjiang," Muhidin Mukhlissi, spokesman for the United Revolutionary National Front, the separatist Uygur group based in Kazakhstan, said.

The shift came as Chinese Defence Minister General Chi Haotian visited Kyrgyzstan after a similar trip to Kazakhstan.

He returns to Beijing today.

The ex-Soviet republics bordering China are home to about 300,000 Muslim Uygurs who form the majority in Xinjiang.

General Chi has won support for his crackdown on Uygur nationalist exile groups.

A Kyrgyz Defence Ministry spokesman said this week: _The positions of Kyrgyzstan and China against separatism and religious extremism are identical."

Over the past few weeks, security services in Kazakhstan have stepped up surveillance of several Uygur separatist groups.

_We are disappointed by the Central Asian governments' statements during General Chi Haotian's visit," Kakhraman Khodzhaberdiyev, head of the Association of Uygur People, which is legally registered in Kazakhstan, said.