CHINA: Police in the capital of China's predominantly Muslim western Xinjiang region have arrested 166 separatists and other criminals during a three-month campaign, state media said.
The arrests took place in Urumqi from September 20th to November 30th during a crackdown on crime, the Xinjiang Daily said in a report seen in Beijing yesterday. Among the 166 were ethnic Uighur separatists classified by Beijing as "terrorists" and other "major criminals" the paper said, without giving a breakdown of the figures.
The Chinese government has dubbed Muslim separatists actively working for a separate state of East Turkestan as "terrorists" in the wake of the September 11th attacks in the US.
Police employed modern technology in making the arrests, apprehending 91 of the 166 after posting their data on the Internet, the paper said.
The UN Human Rights Commissioner, Mrs Mary Robinson, warned Chinese leaders during a visit to Beijing in November that they should not use the war on terror as an excuse for widespread repression in Xinjiang. - (AFP)