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BEIJING: China on Tuesday published a list of eight alleged terrorists from its Muslim northwest who it said had threatened the Beijing Olympics, and appealed to other countries for help in finding them.
"All the eight terrorists listed are members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM)," Public Security Bureau spokesman Wu Heping told reporters.
"And they all took part in plotting, organising and executing various terrorist activities targeting the Beijing Olympic Games."
The ETIM, listed by China, the United States and the United Nations as a terrorist organisation, has been striving for many years to create an independent homeland in the Muslim-populated Chinese region of Xinjiang.
Xinjiang is a vast area of mountains and deserts that borders central Asia, and many of its 8.3 million Uighurs, a Muslim minority speaking a Turkic language, say they have suffered decades of repression under communist rule.
However Uighur dissidents and some human rights groups have said China has exaggerated the threat from so-called terrorists in Xinjiang to justify a harsh security crackdown there.
Wu appealed to other countries for help China in capturing the alleged terrorists.
"We hope that the governments of relevant countries and law enforcement agencies will... track them down, immediately arrest them and hand them over to China so that we can hold them responsible for their crimes," he said.
All eight were Chinese nationals with Uighur names.
Wu alleged some of the eight had organised terrorist training, recruited members, raised funds for terrorist activities and manufactured poisons and explosives.
Others had participated in militant training, Wu said.
China reported a wave of violence before and during the Beijing Olympic Games in Xinjiang, and laid much of the blame on alleged militant Uighurs.
Chinese authorities and state press said more than 30 people died in violence in Xinjiang during August, the month the Olympics were held.
- AFP/yb
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