dogu-turkistan-sempozyumu

The Role of the International Community in East Turkestan / Prof Dru C. Gladneyin Honolulu which is funded by USCINCPAC (the Pacific Asia Command)not only did not mention ETIM, but regarding separatist violence in Xinjiangconcluded that there is “no single identifiable group but there is violent oppositioncoordinated and possibly conducted by exiled groups and organizations withinXinjiang.” 51 Privately, State Department officials have admitted to me personallythat they felt the designation was a mistake. Since that time, no other groups havebeen so designated.The main criticism raised by those critical of this designation is that, withso many identified groups, it has not been made clear why ETIM in particularhas been singled out, unless it was for the political purpose of strengthening US-China relations. Calling them “scapegoat terrorists” the Oxford Analytica reporton the ETIM issue concludes that ETIM and other groups are only a “dubiousthreat” and have been used as an excuse for increased repression. 52 Interestingly,the Mukhlisi’s United Revolutionary Front was not included alongside ETIM,despite its frequent claims of responsibility for violent acts in Xinjiang, suchas the 1997 train derailment and police station bombings. 53 At the same time,many Uighur people have complained to me that although there have been manyreported terrorist bombings in Tibet and frequent organized protests againstChinese rule that have led to violence outside of Tibet, given the sympathyshown to Tibetans in the West, the U.S. is never perceived as siding with Chinain condemning a Tibetan independence organization as terrorist. 54 Despiteinternational protests, on 27 January 2002 China executed a Tibetan monk foundguilty of lethal bombings in Tibet. 55 Yet few believe Tibetan organizations for a“free” or independent Tibet would ever be considered “terrorist.” Many feel thatis it is only due to the fact that they are Muslims that one Uighur group has beensingled out as being terrorist. The real issue for this testimony, however, is thatdespite the designation of ETIM, there are active Uighur-related activist groupswhich can be said to be supportive of terrorism, but which have never been provedto be directly implicated in any specific incident.Prior to Armitage’s announcement and the State Deparment’s report, theChinese State Council had issued its own report on January 21, 2002, chargingthat from 1990-2001 various Uighur separatist groups “had been responsiblefor over 200 terrorist incidents in Xinjiang” which resulted in the deaths of 162489