3 Guards Stabbed To Death In China
Knife-wielding assailants attacked a road checkpoint in China's troubled far-west on Tuesday, killing three and taking the death toll to more than 30 from a surge in violence that has coincided with the Beijing Olympics, officials said.
The state-run Xinhua News Agency said an unknown number of attackers jumped from a vehicle at a road checkpoint in Yamanya town in the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang territory at about 9 a.m. and stabbed four guards, three of whom died.
An officer who answered the telephone at Yamanya town's police post confirmed the three deaths in the attack, though he said it occurred several hours earlier.
The officer, who gave his name as Tu'ersenjiang, said the officers were local government employees who were taking down the names of people who passed through the checkpoint. They were not members of the police or military.
"The case is still under investigation," Tu'ersenjiang said.
A man at the public security bureau in Shule county, where Yamanya is located, said the injured officer was in critical condition at a hospital.
"He has pulled away from danger," said the man, who refused to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "We are now waiting for him to wake up and speak so we can find out more details about what happened."
It was the third attack on government-linked guards this month in the troubled Muslim territory, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and where a militant separatist group is active.
On Sunday, militants tossed homemade bombs at police and other government buildings in the Xinjiang city of Kuqa, then fought with police. Twelve people died, officials said.
Six days earlier, assailants rammed a truck into a group of border police then attacked them with knives and homemade bombs in Kashgar, a city near the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, though government officials have suggested terrorism is behind the violence and insist it is not linked to the Olympics.
But with three audacious attacks in just more than a week and the appearance online of videos threatening the Beijing Olympics, ethnic Uighur extremists in Xinjiang may be trying to use the games as a way to force themselves out of obscurity into the world's view.
Residents and experts say the region is seething with anger among the Uighurs toward Chinese immigrants who are seen by many as symbols of government oppression.
In Sunday's attack, police said 10 assailants - including a woman - were killed along with a security guard and a bystander after they hurled bombs made from pipes and gas canisters at 17 sites, and later at police. Another attacker, a 15-year-old girl, was injured, Xinhua said.
County chief Yusufujiang Maimaiti on Tuesday denied a female involved was 15, but refused to provide an age or confirm whether she was a juvenile.
"It presents several new aspects which were not present in previous incidents in Xinjiang," Bequelin said. "One is the sophisticated coordination of the attacks: It was not just one attack. It's a string of bombings that requires much more planning and a larger organization to carry out especially at the time of the Olympics when the security is so high."
Government crackdowns often silence the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs) or discourage them from speaking out. Most will only speak to reporters on condition of anonymity.
After the Kuqa attacks, groups of Uighurs in the city of 450,000 people strolled around the streets looking at the damage. Their Chinese neighbors appeared grim and were quick to denounce the violence. But many of the Uighurs seemed amused and cheerful. When asked if they endorsed the attacks, they wouldn't respond or said, "I don't know."
That was the answer given - after a grin and a chuckle - on Monday by a merchant walking through Kuqa's market, bustling with life again after the city was shut down by security forces most of Sunday.
"If you look at the streets, everything seems calm and peaceful," said the merchant, who would only identify himself as Amar because he feared retribution. "But behind it all, the situation is different. People are really angry."
He accused the Chinese of restricting the study and practice of Islam. He also said Uighurs suffered job discrimination and were discouraged from using their Turkic language.
"If you are a Muslim, you are already a criminal suspect in the eyes of the Chinese," he said.
Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the Germany-based, pro-independence World Uighur Congress, claimed in an e-mail that more than 90 Uighurs have been detained recently, and some had been tortured.
Yusufujiang said "there was not an ounce of truth" to Raxit's allegations, but he would not say whether any arrests had been made.
© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The state-run Xinhua News Agency said an unknown number of attackers jumped from a vehicle at a road checkpoint in Yamanya town in the Muslim-dominated Xinjiang territory at about 9 a.m. and stabbed four guards, three of whom died.
An officer who answered the telephone at Yamanya town's police post confirmed the three deaths in the attack, though he said it occurred several hours earlier.
The officer, who gave his name as Tu'ersenjiang, said the officers were local government employees who were taking down the names of people who passed through the checkpoint. They were not members of the police or military.
"The case is still under investigation," Tu'ersenjiang said.
A man at the public security bureau in Shule county, where Yamanya is located, said the injured officer was in critical condition at a hospital.
"He has pulled away from danger," said the man, who refused to give his name because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "We are now waiting for him to wake up and speak so we can find out more details about what happened."
It was the third attack on government-linked guards this month in the troubled Muslim territory, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan and where a militant separatist group is active.
On Sunday, militants tossed homemade bombs at police and other government buildings in the Xinjiang city of Kuqa, then fought with police. Twelve people died, officials said.
Six days earlier, assailants rammed a truck into a group of border police then attacked them with knives and homemade bombs in Kashgar, a city near the border with Pakistan and Afghanistan.
No one has claimed responsibility for the attacks, though government officials have suggested terrorism is behind the violence and insist it is not linked to the Olympics.
But with three audacious attacks in just more than a week and the appearance online of videos threatening the Beijing Olympics, ethnic Uighur extremists in Xinjiang may be trying to use the games as a way to force themselves out of obscurity into the world's view.
Residents and experts say the region is seething with anger among the Uighurs toward Chinese immigrants who are seen by many as symbols of government oppression.
In Sunday's attack, police said 10 assailants - including a woman - were killed along with a security guard and a bystander after they hurled bombs made from pipes and gas canisters at 17 sites, and later at police. Another attacker, a 15-year-old girl, was injured, Xinhua said.
County chief Yusufujiang Maimaiti on Tuesday denied a female involved was 15, but refused to provide an age or confirm whether she was a juvenile.
Anti-government violence has flared in Xinjiang for years. But Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher with New York-based Human Rights Watch's Asia Division, said Sunday's attacks were more highly organized.
"It presents several new aspects which were not present in previous incidents in Xinjiang," Bequelin said. "One is the sophisticated coordination of the attacks: It was not just one attack. It's a string of bombings that requires much more planning and a larger organization to carry out especially at the time of the Olympics when the security is so high."
Government crackdowns often silence the Uighurs (pronounced WEE-gurs) or discourage them from speaking out. Most will only speak to reporters on condition of anonymity.
After the Kuqa attacks, groups of Uighurs in the city of 450,000 people strolled around the streets looking at the damage. Their Chinese neighbors appeared grim and were quick to denounce the violence. But many of the Uighurs seemed amused and cheerful. When asked if they endorsed the attacks, they wouldn't respond or said, "I don't know."
That was the answer given - after a grin and a chuckle - on Monday by a merchant walking through Kuqa's market, bustling with life again after the city was shut down by security forces most of Sunday.
"If you look at the streets, everything seems calm and peaceful," said the merchant, who would only identify himself as Amar because he feared retribution. "But behind it all, the situation is different. People are really angry."
He accused the Chinese of restricting the study and practice of Islam. He also said Uighurs suffered job discrimination and were discouraged from using their Turkic language.
"If you are a Muslim, you are already a criminal suspect in the eyes of the Chinese," he said.
Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the Germany-based, pro-independence World Uighur Congress, claimed in an e-mail that more than 90 Uighurs have been detained recently, and some had been tortured.
Yusufujiang said "there was not an ounce of truth" to Raxit's allegations, but he would not say whether any arrests had been made.
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I do not consider all Muslims as criminal, only the terrorists. I have nothing against the Muslim religion.
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Posted by freeteddy at 02:31 PM : Aug 12, 2008
+ report abuse
**********
ever been stabbed? how about shot?
I am not going to knock your religion. I do not know much about it. If worshiping the rock, earth, sky and sun works for you that is awesome. I just don''t think you have a very firm understanding of the other more recent and more common religions.
The people with the most firm understanding are probably less dangerous than the ones who belive what ever they are told. Please no more lies on the subject.
"They say there is just enough religion in the world to make men hate one another but not enough to make them love" - unknown
wachin ksapa yo.. I do not believe in either religion. as I''''m a follower of Wakan Tanka..
I''''m not that mean SHURCH4TRUTH. But I am brutally honest.. and sometimes the truth hurts..
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Posted by meanbiker
It says it in the old testament. That both the Koran and the new testament are based on
Yeah, and getting shot, well, that feels just fine. *******.
wachin ksapa yo.. I do not believe in either religion. as I''m a follower of Wakan Tanka..
I''m not that mean SHURCH4TRUTH. But I am brutally honest.. and sometimes the truth hurts..
They use knives
They Stab people to death.
Gun control does not stop crime or death.
It just makes death more painful for the victims.
wrongggggg
that is the lie fascist nazi terrorislam tells,,,
they are still practicing their pagan cult that they had before muhammad renamed it to islam,,,
do you not find it interesting that hindus worshipped the same idols in the same number as muhammads tribe
do you not find it interesting that all of the islamic rituals and ceremonies practiced now were also practiced by the idol worshippers before islam and are also practiced by the hindus
the blame goes to HUSSEIN nancy,,,
the Iraqi war is legal, demonic-rat hero oscar, emmy, nobel prize winning al bore says so,,,
it actually never ended since it only stopped by the signing of a ceasefire,,, just like the korean war,,,
the resumption of hostilities was only a matter of time since iraq broke the ceasefire agreement,,,
blame saddam for iraq,,, Even clintoon and the dems wanted the resumption of hostilities back in 1998,,,
"We know that he has stored secret supplies of biological and chemical weapons throughout his country." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
"Iraq''s search for weapons of mass destruction has proven impossible to deter and we should assume that it will continue for as long as Saddam is in power." - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
Moreover, no international law can prevent the United States from taking actions to protect its vital interests, when it is manifestly clear that there is a choice to be made between law and survival. I believe, however, that such a choice is not presented in the case of Iraq. Indeed, should we decide to proceed, that action can be justified within the framework of international law rather than outside it. In fact, though a new UN resolution may be helpful in building international consensus, the existing resolutions from 1991 are sufficient from a legal standpoint. - Al Gore, Sept. 23, 2002
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/gore/gore092302sp.html