April 24 :
At least 21 people including 15 police and “community watch officers” were killed in fighting with “suspected terrorists” in Selibuya, Bachu County, and Kashgar, Xinjiang – near the Pakistan border, the New York Times reports. According to the official account, suspicious activity was reported to a local government office and three community watch officers went to investigate. They found 14 Uighur men with a stockpile of large knives and called the police, but were soon discovered and killed by the gang. Next a dozen more police and community watch officers arrived to find the “gangsters” had killed the initial three investigators. They were herded at knife point into a house, which was then set on fire. In all six police officers and nine community watch officers were killed. Better-armed security forces then arrived and killed six Uighurs and captured another eight, the official Tianshan website reports. According to official reports the suspects were locals who under the influence of “religious extremism” were plotting a “jihad.” There was no evidence they were working with foreign forces.
April 25:
In the Tongan district of Xiamen, Fujian, a month-long protest involving thousands of local residents has ended in violence. Hundreds of local residents had set up tents and banners in front of the party headquarters to protest the illegal sale of their land by local officials when hundreds of People’s Armed Police arrived to breakup their sit-in. The officers beat and arrested the protesters and destroyed their signs and camps, Radio Free Asia reports.
April 26:
In the Great Hall of the People in Beijing China has signed an $8 billion agreement with France to purchase 60 Airbus planes: 42 A320 aircraft and 18 A330 aircraft, Kyodo reports. The deal was signed during French President Francois Hollande’s state visit to China for talks with President Xi Jinping. There are already fourteen Chinese airlines operating 750 A320 aircraft and six carriers flying more than 110 A330s. The agreement is among the eighteen deals inked between China and France including for the construction of a nuclear-waste treatment plant in China. Xi and Hollande agreed to establish a bilateral economic and financial high-level dialogue. The French media dubbed Hollande’s trip a “sales tour” because he brought a planeload of business leaders with him.
April 28:
The East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is training 300-400 fighters in Pakistan’s North Waziristan tribal area on the Afghan border, Pakistan’s the News reports in a two part series. The Uighur rebels, which fight for an independent Xinjiang – or East Turkistan as they call it, have released a videotape showing children firing weapons at an ETIM training camp. In the training video, released by Islami Awazi, the propaganda wing of ETIM, children, some only six, are shown firing handguns, assault rifles and machineguns. Thirteen Uighur children are seen firing AK-47s in various positions while the black flag of the Taliban and ETIM’s light blue banner fly in the background. Beijing is growing impatient with Pakistan’s inability to control radical groups operating in the country.
[Editor’s Note: After ETIM leader Abdul Haq Turkistani was killed in 2010, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said that the group’s back was broken. But it re-emerged under Abdul Shakoor Turkistani and carried out attacks in Hotan and Kashgar, Xinjiang in July 2011 that killed 20. Afterward the Kashgar city government said the ETIM leaders were trained in explosive-making and firearms in camps in Pakistan. In a September 2011 video, made before a U.S. drone attack killed, Abdul Shakoor Turkistani admitted ETIM carried out the attacks.]
April 29:
To prevent defections North Korean soldiers are demolishing villages and homes near the Chinese border along the Duman River and forcing residents to move south. In Onsong, North Hamgyong Province, for instance, around 100 homes were demolished. The Duman river narrows as it passes Onsong, making the area an easy spot for defectors to cross into China. One Onsong resident was executed by firing squad after being captured attempting to defect. Along the Chinese border the DPRK has increased patrols and installed high-tech surveillance equipment, including devices that track cell phone signals, the Chosun Ilbo reports.