Western China: Twin mission for PLA troops
special.scmp.com
[China Maps: lib.utexas.edu ]
CORTLAN BENNETT in Kashgar
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
Monday, October 8, 2001
[DEBKA strikes out... Highlights added --fl]
Thousands of People's Liberation Army troops are pouring through the far-western city of Kashgar in Xinjiang towards the Pakistani and Afghan borders as China prepares for possible US military strikes against Afghanistan or terrorist attacks by local separatist Muslims in the run up to National Day.
The US Embassy in Beijing has sent a senior envoy to the region in an effort to test local reaction to rising tensions along China's remote western borders, as well as possible unrest inside the country itself.
Arriving in Kashgar on Tuesday, second secretary to the US Embassy in Beijing, Arthur Marquardt, was instructed not to comment on his trip. However, according to other sources he has met local minority Muslim leaders including indigenous Uygurs, Uzbeks, Kazhaks and Tajiks, to ask for support.
He is also believed to be monitoring Chinese troop activities in and around Kashgar and gauging local sentiment towards an expected US strike on Afghanistan.
Hundreds of military trucks have been moving night and day along the Karakoram Highway through Kashgar as China seals its borders. Dozens of senior PLA officers have been staying at local hotels before moving out the next day.
The police and PLA presence in Kashgar - a major tourist city along the Silk Road and a gateway to Pakistan - has been increased in the lead-up to National Day, with local authorities preparing for possible attacks or civil unrest by minority Muslim separatists.
China has been waging its own long-running war against terrorism, with local Uygur guerillas reportedly having been trained by Afghanistan's Taleban militia to fight Chinese occupation of what is a predominantly Muslim area.
Beijing has recently stepped up efforts to suppress them. Traditionally [Interesting choice of words! -fl], it arrests and often executes criminals, dissidents and anti-Chinese elements in the run-up to the October 1 celebrations.
According to witnesses, dozens of suspected Muslim separatist leaders have been rounded up in Kashgar over the past weeks, while local authorities have been conducting public show trials in the People's Park in the city centre.
"Kashgar is by and large a peaceful town," said one local Uygur tourist guide. "It has a lot of tourists and generally the people here like foreigners, including Americans.
"Afghanistan may be an Islamic country, but what they did in New York was a terrible thing: even if Muslim people here don't like Americans or their Government, no one here can support that kind of terrorism.
"However, there is still a lot of hatred towards the Chinese. The police have been arresting a lot of Uygur revolutionaries in the past two weeks - many have gone to jail - so that is a problem I do not think will go away and may only get worse as National Day nears.
"The Chinese Government knows this, and that is why you see so many police at the moment."
While the city itself remains relatively calm, China was last night preparing to again close its border with Pakistan, probably indefinitely.
The last Western tourists have been crossing into Xinjiang and many in Kashgar have cut short planned holidays to Pakistan.
"I was planning to go to Pakistan after this, but I got a call from my parents asking me to come home," said one Australian tourist.
"I'm going to fly back to [the Xinjiang capital] Urumqi tonight."
Two New Zealand tourists said they were still prepared to go to Pakistan, but that their tour company had cancelled their plans. "Basically, the Chinese tour group we were with sub-contracted the Pakistani leg of our Silk Road tour to a local Pakistani company, and they are refusing to take us now," said one.
"We haven't been able to find anyone else to take us so far, but we hear the border might be closing soon anyway."
Other tourists coming from Pakistan have reported having to wait days as China closed and opened its border intermittently to position troops.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Pakistani nationals have been asked to leave the country and were gathering in Kashgar yesterday as a deadline to return to Pakistan of midnight last night neared.
China is no longer issuing visas to Pakistani nationals and is refusing to renew visas for those inside the country.
"There are at least 100 of us trying to leave tonight," said one Pakistani trader. "The Chinese Government is refusing to renew our visas and we have more or less been asked to leave before it closes the border again.
"Basically they are letting us out of China, but they're not letting us in."
China closed its border with Pakistan for two days last week, after the attacks in New York and Washint-le, to mobilise troops along its borders with Pakistan and Afghanistan. |
