Harsh sentences for riot crimes will lessen terror threat in China's far west, official says

(WARNING): Article contains propaganda!

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By Gillian Wong (CP)

BEIJING — Handing down harsh sentences for suspects in last year's ethnic riots in China's far west will help root out terrorism, extremism and separatism in the predominantly Muslim region, a local court official said Thursday.

Beijing has been determined to quash dissent in Xinjiang since bloody street riots broke out in the regional capital of Urumqi last July, pitting minority Uighurs against ethnic majority Han Chinese. Almost 200 people were killed, mostly Han, in what was the country's worst communal violence in decades.

The government has since made hundreds of arrests and severely restricted communications in the area.

Rozi Ismail, head of the Xinjiang Higher People's Court, said meting out heavy punishments for crimes committed in the riots remains a key part of rooting out the so-called "three forces" of terrorism, extremism and separatism.

"Maintaining state security and social stability should always be the top political priority," Ismail said in a work report submitted to the Xinjiang People's Congress, the regional legislature, and posted to the official Xinhua News Agency's Web site. "Severe punishments for criminal acts in the July 5 incident should be deemed a priority."

Ismail said that last year 255 people accused of jeopardizing state security were given sentences ranging from 10 years imprisonment to the death penalty. The report did not go into specifics.

More than a dozen people have been sentenced to death and at least nine executions have already been carried out over the riots. Swift punishment for rioters was among the demands of Han protesters who swarmed into Urumqi's streets after the riots, calling for stronger security and the firing of Xinjiang's powerful Communist Party boss Wang Lequan.

Ismail's remarks follow Wednesday's announcement by Xinjiang authorities that they would nearly double public security spending to 2.89 billion yuan ($423 million) and improve emergency response procedures so they can react quickly to mass incidents such as riots. Earlier this month, the region also adopted what appeared be a sweeping law barring the spread of views deemed to threaten national unity.

China blames the rioting on overseas-based groups agitating for greater Uighur rights in Xinjiang, but has presented no direct evidence. The region was smothered in heavy security following the violence, and Internet access has only recently been partially restored.

The Uighurs see Xinjiang as their homeland and resent the millions of Han Chinese who have poured into the region in recent decades. A simmering separatist campaign has occasionally boiled over into violence in the past 20 years.