#6010
[Second Issue of the Day]
#7
Central Asian terror crack-down to focus on three
groups
January 8, 2002
AFP
A stepped-up anti-terrorist campaign in Central Asia by the six-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will be mainly aimed at three Muslim-dominated groups.
"When we talk about fighting the 'three forces' we mainly focus on the terrorist groups in Chechnya and East Turkestan and the Uzbekistan Islamic Movement," Zhou Li, a Chinese foreign ministry official said.
"We believe that these forces are an important part of international terrorist forces and that they should be severely cracked down upon."
On Monday in Beijing, the first foreign ministers' meeting of the SCO, which includes China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, agreed to set up a regional counter-terrorism agency and an emergency response mechanism.
The two mechanisms could be formally established in June when the fledgling SCO will hold a summit in St. Petersburg, Russia, and sign the organization's charter, he said.
The group's mandate to fight the "three forces" of terrorism, religious extremism and ethnic separatism has gained momentum with the global war on terrorism following the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States.
The grouping, which has held meetings since 1996, has long opposed Western human rights criticisms over Russia's crack-down on Chechen rebels and on China's treatment of ethnic Uighur minorities in its westernmost Xinjiang region.
"Different standards from what has been used to attack other terrorist forces should not be adopted (against the SCO)," Zhou said.
Zhou's statement appeared to be aimed at the United States, which has stated that the East Turkestan organization is not a terrorist grouping and that ethnic minorities in western China have legitimate economic and social issues that need to be addressed politically.
The Eastern Turkestan grouping is a loose-knit organization that generally supports the establishment of an independent East Turkestan nation in China's westernmost region.
"This is a rather big circle of terrorist groups that are involved in many activities including splitting the motherland and organized and individual terrorist and violent activties," Zhou said.
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