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Kazakh Police Kill Suspected Uighur Separatists
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From: "Azer H.Hasret" <hasret@azeurotel.com>
ASTANA, Kazakhstan, Sep 28, 2000 --
(Reuters)
Kazakh special forces have killed four Chinese nationals said to belong to a banned Uighur separatist organization, Prime Minister Kasymzhomart Tokayev said on Thursday. The men, wanted for the murder of two Kazakh policemen last week, were shot dead in a gun battle in the early hours of Thursday in the commercial capital Almaty. "The gunmen were not prepared to negotiate, they were heavily armed with grenades and automatic weapons," Tokayev told parliament. "The decision was taken to liquidate the terrorists - the operation lasted 40 to 45 minutes and two policemen were seriously injured. The four gunmen were killed on the spot," he said. Tokayev said the men belonged to a banned organization called East Turkestan, which advocates independence from China. Uighurs are Turkic-speaking Moslems who live in the northwestern Chinese province of Xinjiang. Activists have struggled for decades to establish an independent state, triggering a crackdown by China. About 600,000 Uighurs live in Central Asia, having moved to escape what they say is repression by Chinese authorities. Tokayev said the men were also suspected of having committed a series of murders in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, home to a large Uighur diaspora. Two Chinese businessmen and a leader of Kyrgyzstan's Uighurs were killed earlier this year.
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