Originally posted by the Voice of America.
Voice of America content is produced by the Voice of America,
a United States federal government-sponsored entity, and is in
the public domain.


Uighur Diaspora Hails Removal of ETIM From US Terror List

Asim Kashgarian

   Uighur activists and experts alike welcomed the removal of the East
   Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) from the U.S. terrorist list, saying
   the move by Washington last month helps the religious minority fight
   more effectively for its rights, while making it harder for China to
   portray its crackdown in Xinjiang as a counterterrorism measure.

   "To some degree, the Chinese government succeeded in labeling Uyghur
   organizations and personnel as terrorists in some international
   platforms," said Ilshat Hasan Kokbore, a member of Munich-based World
   Uyghur Congress (WUC), which China has accused of being a group of
   "East Turkistan terrorist forces."

   The ETIM, also referred to as the East Turkistan Islamic Party (ETIP),
   was founded in 1997 in Pakistan by then-33-year-old Uighur religious
   figure Hasan Mahsum, who was living there in exile. The leader
   reportedly had led a few dozen Uighur militants in the Afghanistan and
   Pakistan border region before being killed by a Pakistani army drone in
   October 2003.

   The U.S. designated the group in September 2002, accusing it of
   terrorist acts, such as arson, assassination, and bombing of buses,
   movie theaters, department stores, markets and hotels in China. The
   U.N. followed suit the same month, upon a request by the U.S., China,
   Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan.

   U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a brief October 20 directive
   that was published November 5, revoked the terror designation. The
   decision, according to a State Department spokesperson quoted by Agence
   France-Presse, came because "for more than a decade, there has been no
   credible evidence that ETIM continues to exist."

   Part of a trade-off

   James Millward, a professor of Chinese history at Georgetown
   University, told VOA the U.S. listing of ETIM originally used language
   from a PRC white paper but mistakenly attributed a long list of violent
   acts from the white paper to a single group, ETIM.

   The designation, Millward said, "was part of a tit for tat to get PRC's
   endorsement of the U.S. plans to invade Iraq."

   "[T]he think-tank and counterterrorism world, on the other hand, have
   used the U.S. listing and PRC propaganda far too credulously to talk
   about terrorism in Xinjiang as an ongoing, even escalating reality,"
   Millward added.

   Another Chinese history professor, Michael Clarke from Canberra-based
   Australian National University, said the ETIM has lacked capacity to
   harm China since the death of its leader, Mahsum, in 2003.
   Nevertheless, authorities in Beijing continue to exaggerate its
   strength to gain international sympathy for their policy toward
   minority Uighurs.

   "The ETIM designation has been used by Beijing ever since 2002 as a
   blanket term deployed against any and all violence and opposition to
   the state in Xinjiang in order to delegitimize Uighur grievances and
   justify increased repression," Clarke said.

.