JULY 22 XINJIANG SITREP

C O N F I D E N T I A L BEIJING 002097

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/22/2029
TAGS: PGOV PHUM PROP CH
SUBJECT: JULY 22 XINJIANG SITREP

REF: BEIJING 2083 AND PREVIOUS

Classified By: Deputy Political Section Chief
Ben Moeling. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).


1. (C) Embassy officers present in Xinjiang received
no additional reports of violence in the region. In
Kashgar, the Embassy team encountered surveillance
July 22. Several plain clothes security officers,
thinly disguised as Han Chinese tourists, followed
and took video of the Embassy officers. The team
did not notice unusual security in Kashgar, except
for 25-30 police stationed in front of a major
mosque. Police asked Embassy officers in the plaza
outside the mosque for identification, and told them
they could not "conduct interviews" in Kashgar
because they did not have journalist credentials.
EmbOffs witnessed loudspeaker trucks broadcasting
propaganda messages in Uighur. A Uighur waiter told
EmbOffs that the messages were urging monetary
donations for victims of the Urumqi riots.


2. (C) Despite the obvious surveillance of EmbOffs,
the general security posture in Kashgar appeared to
be more relaxed than in Urumqi. There were
noticeably fewer People's Armed Police personnel in
Kashgar. A security checkpoint was in place July 22
just outside the Kashgar airport on the road leading
into the city. Police at the checkpoint were
screening every person. A taxi driver told Embassy
officers that the extra screening was because of
concern about people "coming over the border" into
Xinjiang. (Note: There are several direct flights
per week between Kashgar and Islamabad.) On a
major road leading into the Western part of Kashgar,
EmbOffs witnessed a local police checkpoint that was
stopping and searching all trucks entering the city.
In addition to searching vehicles, local police were
checking documents and writing down ID numbers for
all passengers. EmbOffs witnessed two Uighurs being
stopped by local police and, after questioning,
being driven away in a police car. The Embassy team
will return to Urumqi on July 23.


3. (U) The Urumqi riots received only scattered
coverage in domestic newspapers July 22, a day when
a solar eclipse that crossed central China dominated
the news. In a July 21 press conference, State
Ethnic Affairs Commission Vice Minister Wu Shimin
reiterated government claims that the July 5 Urumqi
riot was "schemed and fabricated by the 'three
forces' of extremism, separatism and terrorism both
at home and abroad." Wu said, according to the
Xinhua News Agency, that the fact the riots only
occurred in Urumqi "proved it had nothing to do with
national ethnic policies." Wu acknowledged some
"conflicts and frictions" between ethnic groups, but
noted that these have been solved.


4. (U) Xinhua also reported comments related to the
U.S. public stance on Xinjiang by Vice Foreign
Minster He Yafei at a July 22 press briefing about
the upcoming U.S.-China Strategic and Economic
Dialogue. VFM He told journalists that China had
noticed the United States' "prudent" (jinshen)
statements, though he stressed that the Urumqi riots
were China's internal affair. He said the United
States should "restrain" Rebiya Kadeer and not
allow her to use U.S. soil to engage in separatism.
GOLDBERG