East Turkestan Islamic Movement
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The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM, Turkish: Doğu Türkistan İslâm Hareketi) is an Uyghur, purportedly militant organization that advocates the creation of an independent, Islamic state of East Turkestan, formally part of Afghanistan, in what is currently the Xinjiang region of the People's Republic of China (PRC).
The United States listed the ETIM as a terrorist organizations on August 27 2002, following a visit to China of Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.[1]
The founder and leader of the organization was allegedly Hasan Mahsum, who was shot and killed by the Pakistani Army on October 2, 2003.
ETIM is described as a terrorist organization by the governments of the PRC, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and the United States, as well as the United Nations. [2] [3] [4] [5]
The Chinese government blamed ETIM members for several car bomb attacks in Xinjiang in the 1990s, as well as the death of a Chinese diplomat in Kyrgyzstan in 2002, but the group has neither admitted nor denied such accusations.
ETIM is alleged to have had links with Al-Qaeda. In its 2005 report on terrorism, the US State Department said that the group was "linked to al-Qaida and the international jihadist movement" and that Al-Qaeda provided the group with "training and financial assistance".[6]
In January 2002, the Chinese government released a report in which it attempted to prove that Hasan Mahsum met with Osama bin Laden in 1999 and received promises of money, and that bin Laden sent "scores of terrorists" into China.[7] However, alleged ETIM leader Hasan Mahsum denied such organizational ties and alleged China exaggerates such claims as a means of enlisting support from the United States.[8][6]
In July 2009 The Guardian reported that Chinese security officials conflated several distinct groups under the name East Turkestan Islamic Movement.[9]
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[edit] Existence
According to the Christian Science Monitor, there are significant doubts about the groups actual existence.
[...] questions exist as to whether ETIM existed as China described it. According to Dru Gladney, president of the Pacific Basin Institute at Pomona College and a widely acknowledged authority on the Uighurs, few experts "had ever heard of" ETIM until after China began trumpeting the group as a threat. He also noted that the majority of information on ETIM "was traced back to Chinese sources," providing for "a real credibility gap." Professor Gladney says that some believe ETIM to be part of a US-China quid pro quo, where China supported the "war on terror," and "support of the US for the condemnation of ETIM was connected to that support."
The Uyghur American Association has requested that international community establish an independent body to investigate whether ETIM exists.[11]
[edit] Detainees at Guantanamo Bay
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Approximately two dozen Uyghurs were held in extrajudicial detention at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp operated by the United States in Cuba. On March 3, 2006, the US Department of Defense was forced to release the transcripts of detainees who had attended their Combatant Status Review Tribunals.
Most of the Uyghur detainees faced allegations that they were tied to the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, Al-Qaeda, or the Taliban.
Five of the Uyghur detainees were among the 38 detainees whom the tribunals determined were not "enemy combatants". The United States government did not grant the Uyghurs asylum, but neither would they repatriate them to the PRC, fearing that they would be tortured or executed by the Chinese government.[2] On 5 May 2006 the five Uyghurs were transported to Albania. [12]
Guantanamo intelligence analysts conflated the following alternate versions of its name: East Turkistan Islamic Movement, East Turkish Islamic Movement, Eastern Turkestan Islamic Movement, Islamic Party of Eastern Turkestan, Islamic Party of Turkestan, Eastern Turkestan Islamic Party, Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement, Eastern Turkestan Organization, Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party, East Turkistan Islamic Party, East Tajikistan Islamic Party, Eastern Turkistan Uighur Party, Islamic Movement of Turkistan, and East Turkistan Movement.
On June 20, 2008, Hozaifa Parhat's DTA appeal was heard before a panel of judges in a Washington DC Court of Appeals. The Detainee Treatment Act of 2005 had curtailed Guantanamo captives' ability to initiate habeas corpus petitions. It substituted a more limited appeal, through the DC Court of Appeals. Captives appeals to this court were only allowed on the basis that their Combatant Status Review Tribunals did not follow the rules for those Tribunals. Over 150 captives initiated appeals under the DTA. Parhat's was the only one to run to completion. The Panel ruled that his CSR Tribunal had erred, and the evidence did not support classifying him as an "enemy combatant".
The June 12 2008 Supreme Court ruling in Boumediene v. Bush re-opened the captives' access to habeas corpus. In September 2008, days before the Department of Justice would have had to defend its designation that that the captives were enemy combatants, the Bush administration decided it would no longer try to defend classifying the Uyghurs as enemies.
Huzaifa Parhat Abdul Helil Mamut, Emam Abdulahat and Jalal Jalaladin were unexpectedly set free in Bermuda on June 11 2009.[13]
[edit] ETIM on Terrorist Exclusion List
As part of ongoing U.S. efforts against terrorism, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell has designated ten additional groups as terrorist organizations for immigration purposes, thus placing them on the so-called terrorist exclusion list. He made these designations pursuant to the authority of section 212 (a)(3)(B)(vi)(II) of the Immigration and Nationality Act, and in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security.
The Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement (a.k.a. Eastern Turkistan Islamic Party, a.k.a. ETIM, a.k.a. ETIP) was designated under TEL, effective April 29, 2004. This organization previously had been designated by the Secretary or Deputy Secretary under Executive Order 13224 (on terrorist financing). The intention of the TEL designations was to complement with travel restrictions the assets freeze imposed on these organizations as a result of their designations pursuant to E.O. 13224. [14]
[edit] Terrorist link re-examined
On June 16 2009 the Agence France Presse reported that Bill Delahunt, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives convened hearings to examine how organizations were added to the US blacklist in general, and how the ETIM was added in particular.[15]
According to the Agence France Presse Sean Roberts of George Washington University, an expert on Uighurs testified that the ETIM was new to him -- that it wasn't until it was blacklisted that he heard of the group.[15]
AFP quoted Roberts:
"It is difficult to justify the allegations that ETIM is a sophisticated and dangerous terrorist organization with links to Al-Qaeda and it is perfectly reasonable to assume that the organization no longer exists at all."
Agence France Presse reported that the Congressional Research Service found that the first published mention of the group was in the year 2000, but that China attributed attacks to it that had occurred up to a decade earlier.[15]
[edit] See also
- Huseyincan Celil
- Xinjiang raid (January 2007)
- East Turkestan independence movement
- East Turkestan Liberation Organization
- 2008 Uyghur unrest
[edit] References
- ^ Michael Scheuer (2004). Imperial hubris: Why the West is Losing the War on Terror. Brassey's. ISBN 9781574888492. http://books.google.ca/books?id=lVaRkVnp9HUC&source=gbs_navlinks_s. "27 August 2002: In Beijing, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage announces U.S. support for Chinese military actions against Uighur separatists in western China, saying the United States agreed that the Uighurs have "committed acts of terrorism." In Washington, the State Department adds the East Turkistan Islamic Movement to its list of proscribed terrorist organizations."
- ^ a b Edward Cody (2006-05-10). "China demands that Albania return ex-U.S. detainees". Washington Post. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/09/AR2006050900478.html. Retrieved on 2007-08-23.
- ^ "Country Reports on Terrorism". US State Dept.. 2007-04-30. http://www.state.gov/s/ct/rls/crt/2006/82734.htm. Retrieved on 2007-08-23.
- ^ "Governance Asia-Pacific Watch". United Nations. 2007-04. http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/apcity/unpan025885.htm. Retrieved on 2007-08-23.
- ^ The New Face of Jihad
- ^ a b "Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement". MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base. 2007-05-17. http://www.tkb.org/Group.jsp?groupID=4347. Retrieved on 2007-08-23.
- ^ Matthew Forney (2002-04-18). "One Nation Divided". Time Magazine. http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,218371,00.html. Retrieved on 2007-08-23.
- ^ "Uyghur Separatist Denies Links to Taliban, Al-Qaeda". Radio Free Asia. 2002-01-27. http://www.rfa.org/english/news/politics/2002/01/27/85871/. Retrieved on 2007-08-23.
- ^ Tania Branigan, Matthew Weaver (2009-07-06). "Q&A: China and the Uighurs". The Guardian. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/06/china-muslim-uighurs-background. Retrieved on 2009-07-06. "Chinese state media often blames the East Turkestan Islamic Movement for stirring violence and planning attacks. But there are several groups that tend to be labelled as ETIM. Experts claim that China is exaggerating the threat posed by the group, which has been deemed a terrorist group by the UN and the US. While there is evidence of links between ETIM and al-Qaida, most analysts believe those connections are historic and several believe they were exaggerated."
- ^ http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0424/p06s04-wogn.html
- ^ http://www.uyghurcongress.org/En/News.asp?ItemID=-520095990&rcid=-768458094&pcid=1110134820&cid=-768458094
- ^ "Albania takes Guantanamo Uighurs". BBC News. 2006-05-06. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4979466.stm. Retrieved on 2008-08-05.
- ^ Andy Worthington (2009-06-11). "Who Are the Four Guantanamo Uighurs Sent to Bermuda?". Huffington Post. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andy-worthington/who-are-the-four-guantana_b_214606.html. Retrieved on 2009-06-11.
- ^ http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2004/31943.htm
- ^ a b c Shaun Tandon (2009-06-16). "US lawmakers seek review of Uighur 'terror' label". Agence France Presse. http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5izqnr8jZRqX1Taz8MSCFzUlS_Zjg. Retrieved on 2009-06-25.
[edit] External links
- MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base
- East Turkestan Islamic Movement (China, separatists), Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) background information, Updated November 2005
- China's terror list and its implications
- China: Border security tightened amid 'terrorist infiltration' warning
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