TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 12, 2002
Laden financing Chinese separatists: Ambassador
AFP
MOSCOW: Suspected international terrorist Osama Bin Laden is financing and training militant Uighur separatists in China's far western province of Xinjiang, the Chinese ambassador in Moscow said on Tuesday.
China has "numerous proofs that Bin Laden is providing fighters from the East Turkestan movement substantial financial backing for terrorist operations" in China and bordering areas, ITAR-TASS news agency quoted Zhang Deguang as saying.
The Uighur separatists were seeking to create a separate Islamic state in China through a campaign of bombings and killings, the ambassador said.
"All this represents a threat to security and stability, not only for China but for the entire region," he added.
Beijing has said it considers its fight against separatists, particularly those in Xinjiang, a remote region of China where some people want an independent state of East Turkestan, as part of the global anti-terror campaign.
A series of separatist-linked bombings and riots hit Xinjiang in 1997, but analysts say any campaign for independence is low-key and violence is sporadic.
Washington has rejected suggestions it has made any deals with Beijing to gain support for the anti-terror coalition.
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