Security, choreography mark Silk Road torch relay
(Writes through)
By Ben Blanchard
KASHGAR, China, June 18 (Reuters) - The Olympic torch was paraded on Wednesday through the sensitive former Silk Road city of Kashgar, home to ethnic-minority Muslim Uighurs, under the scrutiny of Chinese soldiers and choreographed cheering crowds.
China has accused Uighur separatists in oil-rich Xinjiang of plotting attacks with al Qaeda's support to help achieve their goal of establishing an independent country called East Turkestan.
The government banned all but carefully chosen members of the public, including Islamic leaders in head dresses and children in traditional attire, from the relay route and ordered everyone else to stay at home and watch on television.
Shops were shut as small groups waved Chinese and Olympic flags under a bright, clear sky. Between the groups, the streets were deserted.
Uighur children, some holding large flags, chanted "Go China, Go Olympics, Go Sichuan and Go Kashgar" in the square outside the giant Idkhar Mosque, closed to the public. The Sichuan mention referred to last month's devastating earthquake.
Everyone on the street wore a sticker with a number and the Olympic flame in an apparent security measure, as soldiers lined the route at every 30 metres (yards).
"We will share together the joy of the Olympic torch relay," Xinjiang governor Ismail Tiliwaldi told a carefully selected crowd of government officials and children.
China claims to have cracked at least two Xinjiang-based terror plots this year, one involving an attempt to bring down an airliner flying to Beijing and the other to kidnap foreigners and carry out suicide attacks at the Olympics.
Propaganda posters in Chinese and English and flags to welcome the torch were strung along the relay route, though there was little evidence of the Uighur language being used and hardly any signs or flags in Kasghar's backstreets.
"PRESERVE STABILITY"
"Welcome the Olympics, preserve stability," read one large, stern-sounding banner hung over a school entrance, in a reminder of the region's ethnic woes.
Even the city's sewers appeared to have been included in a thorough security sweep, with tape stuck across manhole covers as seals to make it easier to spot any underground infiltration.
Foreign reporters have been banned from talking to anyone watching the torch along its route, despite China pledging complete media freedom when it applied to host the Olympics.
On Saturday, the Olympic flame is due to pass through Lhasa, the Tibetan capital where anti-Chinese protests broke out in March.
The torch relay was meant to be a symbol of national unity and pride for China, but it was dogged by anti-government protests on its international leg after the clampdown in Lhasa, and at home authorities are at pains to ensure its smooth journey, especially in troubled minority areas such as Xinjiang.
As in Tibet, many Uighurs resent the migration of Han Chinese to the region and government controls on their culture and religion.
Foreign rights groups say the government has been carrying out a pre-Olympic crackdown in Xinjiang ahead of the Beijing Games, which open on Aug. 8.
"Over the past three months a blanket ban on all religious activities and gatherings outside of state-controlled mosques was imposed," said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher at Human Rights Watch.
"Informers are everywhere, as evidenced by tourists interrogated by the police about the most mundane activity such has having had a conversation with a Uighur fruit vendor." (Editing by Nick Macfie and Jerry Norton) (For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road to Beijing" here; and see our blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)
By Ben Blanchard
KASHGAR, China, June 18 (Reuters) - The Olympic torch was paraded on Wednesday through the sensitive former Silk Road city of Kashgar, home to ethnic-minority Muslim Uighurs, under the scrutiny of Chinese soldiers and choreographed cheering crowds.
China has accused Uighur separatists in oil-rich Xinjiang of plotting attacks with al Qaeda's support to help achieve their goal of establishing an independent country called East Turkestan.
The government banned all but carefully chosen members of the public, including Islamic leaders in head dresses and children in traditional attire, from the relay route and ordered everyone else to stay at home and watch on television.
Shops were shut as small groups waved Chinese and Olympic flags under a bright, clear sky. Between the groups, the streets were deserted.
Uighur children, some holding large flags, chanted "Go China, Go Olympics, Go Sichuan and Go Kashgar" in the square outside the giant Idkhar Mosque, closed to the public. The Sichuan mention referred to last month's devastating earthquake.
Everyone on the street wore a sticker with a number and the Olympic flame in an apparent security measure, as soldiers lined the route at every 30 metres (yards).
"We will share together the joy of the Olympic torch relay," Xinjiang governor Ismail Tiliwaldi told a carefully selected crowd of government officials and children.
China claims to have cracked at least two Xinjiang-based terror plots this year, one involving an attempt to bring down an airliner flying to Beijing and the other to kidnap foreigners and carry out suicide attacks at the Olympics.
Propaganda posters in Chinese and English and flags to welcome the torch were strung along the relay route, though there was little evidence of the Uighur language being used and hardly any signs or flags in Kasghar's backstreets.
"PRESERVE STABILITY"
"Welcome the Olympics, preserve stability," read one large, stern-sounding banner hung over a school entrance, in a reminder of the region's ethnic woes.
Even the city's sewers appeared to have been included in a thorough security sweep, with tape stuck across manhole covers as seals to make it easier to spot any underground infiltration.
Foreign reporters have been banned from talking to anyone watching the torch along its route, despite China pledging complete media freedom when it applied to host the Olympics.
On Saturday, the Olympic flame is due to pass through Lhasa, the Tibetan capital where anti-Chinese protests broke out in March.
The torch relay was meant to be a symbol of national unity and pride for China, but it was dogged by anti-government protests on its international leg after the clampdown in Lhasa, and at home authorities are at pains to ensure its smooth journey, especially in troubled minority areas such as Xinjiang.
As in Tibet, many Uighurs resent the migration of Han Chinese to the region and government controls on their culture and religion.
Foreign rights groups say the government has been carrying out a pre-Olympic crackdown in Xinjiang ahead of the Beijing Games, which open on Aug. 8.
"Over the past three months a blanket ban on all religious activities and gatherings outside of state-controlled mosques was imposed," said Nicholas Bequelin, a Hong Kong-based researcher at Human Rights Watch.
"Informers are everywhere, as evidenced by tourists interrogated by the police about the most mundane activity such has having had a conversation with a Uighur fruit vendor." (Editing by Nick Macfie and Jerry Norton) (For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road to Beijing" here; and see our blog at blogs.reuters.com/china)
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