Terrorist attack marks the upcoming Olympics by Zuzana Zelenakova

The upcoming Beijing Olympics that are to start in just four days have already had enough controversy and it seems the chain of disturbing events is not about to be interrupted. China has been shocked by a terrorist attack that took place about 3,400 kilometers from Beijing on Monday morning. Two men armed with knives and explosives ambushed jogging military police unit in a city of Kashgar in the northwest part of the country near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. 16 officers were killed in the assault and another 16 injured. The two men, aged 28 and 33, are members of the local Muslim Turkic ethnic group known as Uighurs which has fought for the independence from Chinese rule for decades. According to the official news agency Xinhua the attackers rammed their truck into the jogging soldiers, then jumped out of the truck stabbing the soldiers with knives and finally threw homemade bombs at the barracks. However, Chinese leaders claim that the Olympics will be safe. They warn that the terrorist threat mainly from Muslim separatist groups in Xinjiang region is still present, but stay confident about the security of the Olympics themselves. Human rights advocates claim that the country´s systematic repression of the culture and religion of Xinjiang inhabitants are to be blame partially for the growing number of radicals. “These policies are forcing more Uighurs to turn to more militant protest,” said Dilxat Raxit, a spokesman for the World Uyghur Congress, an exile group based in Germany. The level of security in Beijing itself has been high even before the Monday attack. Sidewalks are closely watched by the surveillance cameras, police officers search vehicles entering the city and surface-to-air missiles guard the sky above the Olympic stadiums. Even the thousands of civilians help to strengthen the security patrolling neighborhoods looking for anything suspicious.


related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080804/ap_on_re_as/oly_china_security;_ylt=AkfVckwbvXM5OvJXB7rrFq.s0NUE

by Zuzana Zelenakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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posted by Lucia Adamova