May 02, 2014

A harsh clampdown on ethnic Uighurs by Beijing is in the cards after Chinese authorities blamed the ethnic minority for the April 30 bombing in Urumqi that killed three people.

Two of the bodies were identified as ethnic Uighurs. Local Chinese officials said they almost certainly were the bombers.

With the threat of retaliation looming, more ethnic Uighurs will likely try to flee to Southeast Asia through China’s southern border.

The bombing at a railway station in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, came hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping completed his first visit to the region.

The brazen attack will be taken as a direct challenge to the authority of the Communist Party, which is expected to strike back with steps to bring Uighurs to heel.

Such measures in the past have been blamed for triggering ethnic strife in the autonomous region. Uighurs, who are mainly Muslims, are angered at religious restrictions implemented by Beijing as well as the growing economic disparity that has emerged with the majority Han Chinese.

Already this year, Thailand and Vietnam have reported an increase in illegal immigrants, believed to be Uighurs.

In the mountainous area of the Hai Ha district of Quang Ninh province, Vietnam, a border patrol stopped a group of 16 Uighurs near a checkpoint to the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in southeastern China on April 18.

The heads of four of the women were wrapped in cloth. There were two children in the group.

The officers took the group into a building for subsequent repatriation to China. A number of Uighurs grabbed the AK-47 assault rifles held by the patrol officers and opened fire. The women lashed out with knives. Two Uighurs were killed as the patrol officers returned fire. Three Uighurs jumped from the building, killing themselves. Two patrol officers were killed in the shooting.

According to the Vietnam newspaper Tuoi Tre, the 11 who survived and were repatriated to China said they wanted to flee to a third nation via Vietnam.

In the Thai town of Aranyaprathet close to the border with Cambodia, authorities found a group of illegal immigrants hiding in the jungle on April 24. Sixteen individuals, six of them children, were detained. Immigration officials believe they are all Uighurs.

It was the fourth such case in the town this year. So far, 70 individuals have been detained. In southern Thailand, 300 or so illegal immigrants have been found.

Thailand is known as a transit point for international human trafficking networks. It had been used in the past by defectors from North Korea. The first case involving Uighurs came only in the latter half of last year.

An official with the immigration bureau in Sa Kaeo province that oversees eastern Thailand said, “There are many unclear points” about the Uighurs.

However, a vague picture of the route the Uighurs were trying to take has emerged through investigations by Thai authorities.

Because it is on the border with Cambodia, Sa Kaeo is the entrance to Thailand. After crossing the border through jungle, illegal immigrants wait a few days in jungle on the other side before cars whisk them to safety. They travel overland to Bangkok and then move to the southern border with Malaysia. They avoid major thoroughfares and hide in rubber plantations along the way. They eventually enter Malaysia either over land or by sea. In Malaysia, it is thought the immigrants obtain fake Turkish passports and use those documents to fly to Turkey.

In a related development, Chinese officials have come up with an explanation for a March 1 attack in Kunming, Yunnan province, that left more than 170 people dead or injured. The attack was blamed on Uighur separatists.

Qin Guangrong, the secretary of the Yunnan provincial Communist Party committee, said the suspects, having failed to leave China from Guangdong province, tried to get out through Yunnan province’s Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture, which borders Vietnam. That attempt also failed. The group had already decided to wage “jihad” in Kunming as a last resort.

Diplomatic sources believe that Uighurs who managed to reach Southeast Asia likely sought to make Pakistan their final destination.

The Chinese government is concerned that Uighurs could join up with terrorist groups based in Pakistan.

In its efforts to thwart escape attempts by Uighurs, Beijing is seeking to forcibly remove those who live near national borders.

The suspects who carried out the attack in Kunming are believed to have hidden at one time in the Shadian district of Gejiu in the Honghe Hani and Yi Autonomous Prefecture.

Chinese authorities have stepped up surveillance of Shadian because they suspect it is being used as a base by Uighurs in leaving China.

At one time, about 900 Uighurs were believed to have been living in Shadian. About 90 percent of the Shadian population belongs to the Hui ethnic group.

“Since there are many Hui who are also Muslims, there was more acceptance of religious activities by the Uighurs,” said one resident, explaining the Uighur presence.

However, Uighurs are no longer found in Shadian.

After the Kunming incident, authorities in Shadian posted a notice on the Internet that said, “For the safety of the residents of Shadian, there is a plan to completely move Xinjiang people (Uighurs) from the area.”

According to Shadian residents, a few days after the Kunming incident, Uighurs were gathered in front of a mosque and were made to ride buses that apparently took them back to the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region.

(This article was written by Manabu Sasaki in Hanoi; Ryosuke Ono in Sa Kaeo, Thailand; and Kim Soon-hi in Gejiu, China.)