Published by: THE WORLD UYGHUR NETWORK NEWS October 10, 1997

Agence France-Presse, 10/10/97

Authorities yesterday denied reports of five bomb attacks in Xinjiang, which exiled separatists claimed had left at least 22 dead.

"We have never heard of such incidents," a Xinjiang government official said. "The residents of Xinjiang have a very happy life here," he said.

A spokesman for the United Revolutionary National Front said from its headquarters in the Kazakh capital Almaty that five bombs had gone off in the region. The biggest attack happened in Kuytun city in the east of the region, where a bomb went off on October 1 killing 22 people and damaging several buildings, the spokesman said. Four other bombs went off between October 2 and Tuesday in the cities of Suydun and Shihezi, killing many Chinese, the spokesman claimed.