B.RAMAN
According to a belated report disseminated by Radio
Free Asia, there has been a suicide attack in the interior areas of Xinjiang.
2. Coinciding with the observance of the Chinese National
Day on October 1,2012, an unidentified motorcyclist reportedly drove into a post of the People’s Armed Police
at Kargilik (in Chinese Yecheng) in the Kashgar Prefecture causing an explosion
which killed a number of policemen. A local villager has been quoted as saying
that the PAP post suffered about 20 casualties, but there has been no confirmation
of the details of the attack from the local authorities.
3.This area had seen three incidents since December
last. In the December incident, the Chinese border authorities allegedly shot
dead seven Uighurs-including some women and children-- who were trying to
illegally flee to Pakistan through the Guma area. After the incident, they
projected them as terrorist suspects.
4.In the second incident, believed to be in
retaliation for this, 20 persons, mostly Han Chinese, were stabbed to death in
the Kargilik area in February. The third incident on October 1,2012, is also
believed to be in retaliation for the December incident.
5. For the last one month, the Chinese authorities
have stepped up physical security in the Xinjiang province as a precautionary
measure before the forthcoming 18th Congress of the Communist Party
of China on November 8. Despite this, the suicide attack of October 1 has taken
place. Following this suicide attack, more PAP units from outside the province
have been inducted into Xinjiang to further tighten security.
6. Meanwhile, like the Tibetan diaspora,
representatives of the Uighur diaspora have also held on October 1 a brain-storming session at
Munich in Germany to discuss the likely policies of the new CPC leadership
which will be taking over on November 8 towards the Uighurs. Mr.Xi Jinping will
be taking over as the General Secretary of the Party from Mr.Hu Jintao. He will
take over as the State President from Mr.Hu in March next year.
7. Xi is the son of liberal-minded former Vice Premier Xi
Zhongxun, who was purged from the CPC ahead of the Cultural Revolution. Before
his purge, it used to be said that he was sympathetic to the ethnic minorities
and had a close personal friendship with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Moreover,
the wife of Mr.Xi Jinping is reported to be a practising Buddhist.
8.Despite these factors, Mr.Xi Jinping has till now
subscribed to the party’s two-pronged policy of firm enforcement of law and
order in Tibet and Xinjiang and a rapid economic development of these areas in
order to bring them on par with the economic development in the Han areas of
China. He has also been subscribing to the policy of stepped-up Han migration
to these areas to give the Hans an effective control.
9.In view of this, any hopes among members of the
Tibetan and Uighur diaspora abroad that Mr.Xi Jinping might soften the policy
towards the ethnic minorities may not be based on reality.(18-10-12)
(The writer
is Additional Secretary (retd), Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi,
and, presently, Director, Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai, and Associate
of the Chennai Centre For China Studies. E-mail: seventyone2@gmail.com Twitter @SORBONNE75)
