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China's Murky Olympic Terror Threats
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Apr 11, 2008 08:54am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Weekly News Magazine - TIME Magazine |
| News Date | Thursday, April 10, 2008 02:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Thursday, Apr. 10, 2008
By LIN YANG/BEIJING
The run-up to the Beijing Olympics has been clouded by one confusing crisis after another. Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee president, said on Thursday that he was "saddened" by the violence that broke out along the torch relay's bumpy road and acknowledged that it had not been "the joyous party that we had wished it to be." Hours later, the Chinese Ministry of Public Security held a press conference to announce that the authorities had nabbed two terrorists groups in Xinjiang that had "attempted to carry out sabotage to undermine the Beijing Olympic Games." Despite Beijing's alarm, however, some observers are looking at this unveiled terror threat with a skeptical eye.
Officially, the revelations sound ominous. One of the groups was allegedly headed by a terrorist sent into China by "East Turkestan" separatists from overseas, said the ministry spokesman Wu Heping. East Turkestan is the name given to China's huge Xinjiang province by separatists belonging to the Uighur ethnicity. (It was used by a couple of short-lived republics in the area during the period of China's civil wars in the first half of the 20th century.) The group, Wu said, had "carried out 13 explosion experiments inside China, and was to carry out attacks in major cities including Beijing and Shanghai to disrupt the coming Olympics." The other group, apparently apprehended by the Chinese authorities less than a week ago, "made plans last November to kidnap foreign journalists, tourists, as well as Olympic athletes during the Games to cause an international sensation and disrupt the Beijing Olympics." This group, said Wu, had also been looking for members who were willing to carry out "jihad" in the capital city of Xinjiang Province, Urumqi, and in Chinese cities in the interior. |
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