Word: turkestan
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...long-running effort by Uighur separatists to tarnish the Beijing Olympics. Without giving details, Shi said that a preliminary investigation found similarities between this week's attack and evidence uncovered from a raid on a Uighur separatist training camp in January 2007. "Starting from last year the East Turkestan forces at home and abroad tried sabotage and violent activities targeting the Beijing Games," Shi said, using the historic name of an independent Uighur state which some groups have hopes of restoring through violent struggle. "The East Turkestan Islamic Movement and the East Turkestan Liberation Organization are the two most active...
...said that he believed Kashgar residents were united in opposition to such violence. "Kashgar people of all ethnic groups are a strong foundation to combat East Turkestan forces," he said. He promised "a severe battle" against terrorism, and said the area's recent economic growth was a sign that the region was stable and prosperous. "We have a unitary ethnic environment and a very stable society," he said. "Even a midnight, people still have no problem strolling or jogging on the streets...
Chinese security officials have repeatedly stated that the possibility of a terrorist attack by Xinjiang separatists is the greatest threat to the Olympics. Beijing has invariably pointed to a group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement as posing the greatest threat of violence, though in recent weeks, Xinjiang officials have simultaneously asserted that the situation in the province was under control. Counter terrorism experts generally say the East Turkestan Islamic Movement boasts no more than 40 fighters under active training, most likely in the tribal areas of Pakistan that border Afghanistan, where they allegedly have ties to groups directly linked...
...late July, a previously little known group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic Party released a video claiming it carried out several fatal bombings in China in recent months. The group's self-described military commander, Seyfullah, said on the video that it was responsible for incidents in Shanghai in early May and in the southern city of Kunming on July 21 that killed a total of five people. He also threatened to carry out further attacks during the Beijing Olympics. Terrorism experts met the claims with skepticism and Chinese police denied the explosions had any Xinjiang connections...
...contradictory accounts given by security forces of alleged attempted attacks, there is little dispute that some sort of attack during the Games is possible. In 2002, under pressure to obtain China's support for an amendment on Iraq at the U.N., the U.S. State Department designated the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) as a terrorist group. Concrete information on such groups is hard to come by. The consensus is that a small group of separatists - probably fewer than 40, according to Gunaratna - is being trained under the ETIM umbrella in the tribal areas of Pakistan that line...