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U.S.: China separatists 'plotted embassy attacks'
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- Two men suspected of planning attacks on embassies in Kyrgyzstan last spring have been deported from the Central Asian nation to China, the U.S. Embassy in Beijing confirmed to CNN on Friday. They are alleged members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), an Islamic group in exile that seeks an independent Islamic state for China's Xinjiang Autonomous Region in the country's far west. An embassy spokeswoman would neither confirm nor deny whether the suspected plans included the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek, but said that the Kyrgyz government initiated the deportations on May 22. One of the two men was traveling on a false Turkish passport and carrying out surveillance at various sites in Kyrgyzstan, the spokeswoman said. China's Foreign Ministry was not able to immediately confirm the deportations or say where the men are now.
The United States recently added ETIM to a list of terrorist organizations, and China claims members of the group trained in militant camps in Afghanistan during Taliban rule. Muslims of Chinese nationality, usually ethnic Uighurs, were among foreign fighters taken prisoner in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led military campaign began there. 'Not representative'Uighurs numbered up to 1,000 in Afghanistan during the Taliban era, diplomats estimate. Diplomatic sources tell CNN they believe militant Uighurs are a small minority, and not representative of a population more concerned with cultural and economic inequities than taking up arms against Chinese rule. Some Uighur independence groups have criticized the United States for including ETIM on its terror list. Doing so, they say, rewards China for what they allege are systematic human rights abuses in Xinjiang. "This is a wrong decision because the U.S. government will provide the Chinese government with an excuse to crack down on the Uighur population in Xinjiang," said Rexiti Dilixiadi, head of the East Turkestan National Congress based in Munich, Germany. David Lampton, a China specialist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore says cooperation between the United States and China has improved to a "limited degree" since September 11. "The fact of the matter is that China is not a central player in the war against terrorism," he told CNN. Nonetheless, he added, "it's been very helpful and it's helped win Pakistani support for the United States. It's contributed some development assistance to the rebuilding effort in Afghanistan and there's been intelligence sharing." |
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