China says foil terrorists plot to kidnap

Uighur militants have been agitating to establish an independent East Turkestan in China's predominantly Muslim northwestern region of Xinjiang bordering Pakistan, Afghanistan and Central Asia.

Chinese authorities cracked two "terrorist" groups, one of which belonged to the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), Ministry of Public Security spokesman Wu Heping told a news conference in Beijing. ETIM was listed by the United Nations as a terrorist group in 2002 and has links to Al Qaeda.

The group asked its members to do trial runs using poisoned meat, poison gas and remote control explosive devices, Wu said. Their aim was "to create an international incident with the goal of disrupting the Olympic Games", the spokesman said.

The first group, led by Aji Muhammat, bought explosive materials and carried out 13 test explosions, Wu said without giving the nationality of the ringleader.

Suspects in custody confessed they were ordered to commit suicide if arrested, he said. Police detained 10 suspects and seized 16,000 yuan ($2,300) in cash and a large quantity of "Holy War" training materials, Wu said. Several other suspects are on the run.

At the end of last year, the group ordered its members to enter China and had planned to be ready by April to carry out "terrorist" activities starting from May in Beijing and Shanghai, using explosives and poison, the spokesman said.

In the second case, authorities in Xinjiang's regional capital Urumqi detained 35 suspects including Abdurahman Tursun, the ringleader of a "terrorist group" that had plotted "to kidnap foreign journalists, tourists and athletes during the Olympics", Wu said.

Authorities had also seized 9.51 kg (21 lb) of explosives, eight detonators and some "Holy War" propaganda material, Wu said, adding that the group had also planned to carry out suicide bomb attacks in Urumqi and other cities in China, the spokesman said.

It had been secretly recruiting people "willing to sacrifice their lives for Jihad", or holy war, Wu said. "We are facing a real terrorist threat. All walks of life and the public should maintain a high degree of vigilance," the spokesman added.

Oil-rich Xinjiang is home to 8 million Uighurs -- a Turkic, largely Islamic people who share linguistic and cultural bonds with Central Asia. Many resent the growing presence and economic grip of Han Chinese.

Rights groups have said the Chinese government is using its support for the U.S.-led "War on Terror" to crack down on Turkic-speaking Uighurs. Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, a Germany-based exile group that seeks independence for the region, said Uighurs had never supported terrorism.

"These accusations are based on ulterior motives. We demand that the United Nations establish an investigation body to enter East Turkestan and see whether there are any so-called terrorists," Raxit said.

Last month China foiled a bid to cause an air disaster on a passenger jet en route to Beijing from Urumqi and the plane made a safe emergency landing.

In January 2007, Chinese forces killed 18 people described as terrorists in a gun battle in Xinjiang. One policeman was killed and another wounded in the raid on a training camp in the mountains of the Pamirs plateau in southern Xinjiang.