Reply #1: China dismisses Uighur claim over deadly bus attacks

[ohio2007]

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The group, which calls itself the Turkestan Islamic Party, claimed responsibility for a pair of bus blasts that killed two people Monday in southwest China, and said it would target the Beijing Olympics next month.


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A group claiming to be from China's far west has claimed responsibility for recent bombings there and threatened to attack the Olympics.In a video posted on the internet the group, which says it is from Xinjiang in western China, says it bombed several buses in Kunming five days ago.

According to the video the group wants an independent state for ethnic Uighur Muslims.

The video features three people with obscured faces carrying guns. They also take responsibility for a series of other explosions throughout China and threaten to attack the Olympic Games, which starts in Beijing in two weeks.


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However, rights groups have accused the government of exaggerating or fabricating the threat as an excuse to silence dissent in the Xinjiang region, where many complain about decades of repressive Chinese rule.

Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uighur Congress, an exile group, on Saturday said Uighurs in Xinjiang did not engage in terrorism.

"China wants to prove there is terrorism in Xinjiang to continue to repress Uighurs in the region," he said.

China's foreign ministry and ministry for public security refused to comment on the group's claims when contacted by AFP.




http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080726/wl_asia_afp/oly2008attackschinauighur