TUESDAY, DECEMBER 25, 2001
China considers making terrorism a capital offence
BEIJING: Chinese legislators Monday reviewed an draft law amendment which would make terrorism a capital offence, state media reported.
The National People's Congress (NPC), China's parliament, opened its 25th session Monday to examine amendments to its criminal law to crack down on "terrorism," Xinhua news agency said.
Hu Kangsheng, deputy director of the NPC's legislative affairs commission, said that after the anthrax scare in the United States, those who spread poisonous, radioactive or contagious materials could now face the death pena lty.
Under the amendment those who manufacture, trade, transport, store, or steal poisonous, radioactive or contagious materials could also face the death sentence.
At present those who organise or participate in "terrorist" activities can be sentenced to up to 10 years' imprisonment, Xinhua said.
China already regularly executes people for a wide range of offences including drug trafficking, robbery, rape and murder.
The amendment also stipulates up to five years' jail for "any person who makes a false threat of terrorism ... or seriously disturbs social order by knowingly disseminating terrorist information of a fabricated nature," it said.
Beijing, while giving its backing to the global anti-terrorism campaign, has come under criticism for using the international climate as an excuse to try to crush ethnic Muslim separatists and suspected separatists, especially those among the Turkic-speaking Uighurs in western Xinjiang province.
Critics said separatists should not be lumped together as terrorists. Many labelled separatists do not advocate an independent state or violence but simply want more religious freedom and autonomy to run their region the way they see fit, they said.
China has created so-called "autonomous" regions for Uighurs and other ethnic minorities, but in reality controls the areas, cracking down harshly on dissent.
The United States has differed with China on how to handle Muslim separatists in western China, even though the two countries agree to step up cooperation in fighting international terrorism.
Washington does not consider Muslim separatists in western China to be terrorists. "The US does not designate or consider the East Turkestan organization as a terrorist organization," ambassador-at-large Francis Taylor said after a meeting with Chinese officials earlier this month.
"The legitimate economic and social issues that confront the people in Western China are not necessarily terrorist issues and should be resolved politically rather than using counter-terrorism methods."
China claims that separatists fighting for an independent East Turkestan in Xinjiang are terrorists and since the September 11 attacks on the United States has called on Washington to "understand" its ongoing crackdown there. ( AFP )
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