10/28 Tiananmen Square: China's 9/11?
Was the jeep fire a "violent terrorist attack" in Tiananmen Square on Monday October 28th China's 9/11? The square IMHO is a similar iconic target, even if the two dead and thirty-eight injured are not comparable to 9/11.
The initial reporting was minimal, partly as the Chinese authorities moved rapidly to control information, taking images off Weibo (China's main social media site) for example and declaring martial law in the vicinity for a time.
Today China has admitted, citing Xinhua news agency:
Quote:
The police said that what happened at Tiananmen Square was a "violent terrorist attack" which was "carefully planned and organised".
Today five suspects have been detained who it is suspected come from the Muslim Uighur minority in the restive western region of Xinjiang.
Link:http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24742810 and http://news.yahoo.com/uighur-group-f...031852215.html
There is a thread which includes Xinjiang, China's Far West provinces (inc. Tibet) at:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...splay.php?f=84
ETIM blamed, they stay silent
Meng Jianzhu, chief of the commission for political and legal affairs of the ruling Communist party:
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The violent terrorist incident that happened in Beijing is an organised and plotted act. Behind the instigation is the terrorist group East Turkestan Islamic Movement entrenched in central and west Asian regions
According to the story:
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Alleged terrorist group has not claimed responsibility and critics accuse China of using its name to excuse repression of Uighurs
Link:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...beijing-attack
A family stays silent and strikes
A CSM article title and sub-title:
Quote:
What the Tiananmen Square attack reveals about China's security state; China blames a Uighur separatist group for the Tiananmen car attack this week. But that's highly unlikely, analysts say.
The key point:
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On the contrary, say a number of Chinese and foreign experts on security in Xinjiang. In the restive far western province where most Uighurs live, they say, it may have been the attackers’ very lack of ties to any organization that helped them evade the Chinese police.
Link:http://m.csmonitor.com/World/Asia-Pa...security-state
One day we will do something ourselves
An explanation for the Tiananmen Square attack, via a link in The Guardian to Radio Free Asia:
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....recollected Hesen (the jeep driver) making an emotional speech soon after some 100 police officers surrounded the mosque as workers demolished the courtyard.
Hesen made the speech as he told the mosque community to stand down after they argued with the armed police.
“At that time, Usmen Hesen jumped in and persuaded the community to disperse by saying, ‘Today they have won and we have lost because they are carrying guns and we have nothing—but don’t worry, one day we will do something ourselves’,” Turdi said.
“As Usmen Hesen finished his emotional speech, [his mother] Kuwanhan Reyim (also in the jeep) went to him crying, and hugged and kissed his forehead because of her pride in him. The crowd was also moved to tears and retreated.”
Link:http://www.rfa.org/english/news/uygh...013163042.html
The Guardian article has other views and links:http://www.theguardian.com/world/201...ent-repression
China's internal security problems (post Kunming)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories...03-01-13-30-50
China: Train station attack an act of terrorism
Quote:
BEIJING (AP) -- China's official Xinhua News Agency says authorities consider the attack by a group of knife-wielding assailants at a train station in southwestern China in which at least 27 people died to be an act of terrorism.
Xinhua did not identify who might have been responsible for the Saturday evening attack at the Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan province. But the news agency said authorities considered it to be "an organized, premeditated violent terrorist attack."