dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

FREEEAST TURKISTAN SYMPOSIUMIt is clear that there are more than just internet organizations involved inseparatist activities in and around Xinjiang. As noted above, the East TurkestanIslamic Movement (ETIM) was recognized by the United Nations in August27, 2002 as an international terrorist organization responsible for domestic andinternational terrorist acts, which China claimed included a bombing of theChinese consulate in Istanbul, assassinations of Chinese officials in Bishkek, andUighur officials in Kashgar who were thought to have collaborated with Chineseofficialdom. 46 This designation, however, created a controversy, in that China andthe U.S. presented little public evidence to positively link the ETIM organizationwith the specific incidents described. 47 In 2001, the US State Department releaseda report that documented several separatist and terrorist groups operating insidethe region and abroad, militating for an independent Xinjiang. 48 The list included“The United Revolutionary Front of Eastern Turkestan” whose leader, YusupbekMukhlisi, claims to have 30 armed units with “20 million” Uighurs primed for anuprising; also there is the “Home of East Turkestan Youth,” said to be linked toHamas with a reported 2000 members, the “Free Turkestan Movement” whoseleader Abdul Kasim is said to have led the 1990 Baren uprising discussed above.The “Organization for the Liberation of Uighuristan”, whose leader, AshirVakhidi, is said to be committed to fighting the Chinese “occupation” of the“Uighur homeland” and the so-called “Wolves of Lop Nor”, who have claimedresponsibility for various bombings and uprisings also are on this list. The StateDepartment report claimed that all of these groups have tenuous links with alQaeda, Taliban, the Hizb-ut-Tahrir (“Islamic Revival”) and the Tableeghi Jamaat.Many of these groups were listed in the Chinese report that came out in early2002, but the ETIM was not mentioned. It came as some surprise, therefore, whenat the conclusion of his visit to Beijing in August 26, 2002, the deputy secretary ofstate Richard Armitage identified ETIM as the main coordinating Uighur groupto be targeted as an international terrorist group and held responsible for the vastmajority of violent incidents. 49 Even the Chinese report, on which many believethe U.S. report was based, did not link all the groups to ETIM. At the time,very few people, among which were activists closely involved in working for anindependent East Turkistan, had ever heard of the ETIM group. 50 Even the USmilitary did not seem to be aware of the group, as the 28 September 2001 “SpecialReport: Uighur Muslim Separatists” issued by the Virtual Information Center488