A Force for Good

After Tibet, it's no surprise to see stirrings in its huge neighbour to the north, Xinjiang, aka East Turkmenistan:

China has admitted that protests took place in a restive western region last month, days after unrest in Tibet.

Protesters "caused a disturbance" in the market town of Hotan in China's Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region, according to the local government.

But there are conflicting reports about what caused the incident and the number of people involved.

Officials say protesters wanted independence for Xinjiang, but other reports blamed local disputes.

Xinjiang is a mostly Muslim region, many of whose inhabitants would like to see greater autonomy from Beijing.

That's delicately put. Many of its inhabitants, like many of the inhabitants of Tibet, would like independence.

Chinese authorities claimed last month to have foiled a couple of plots by Uighur separatists:

Officials said a plane crew prevented an attempt to crash a flight from Xinjiang province to Beijing on Friday. Two passengers are being questioned.

Another official said a raid that saw two people killed in Xinjiang in January foiled a plot on the Games. [...]

[T]he boss of the Communist Party in Xinjiang, Wang Lequan, said January's raid, also in Urumqi, had thwarted a plot to attack the Olympics.

"Their aim was very clear," he said. "Specifically to sabotage the staging of the Beijing Olympics."

"Those terrorists, saboteurs and secessionists are to be battered resolutely, no matter what ethnic group they are from," said Mr Wang.

I think we can be fairly sure which ethnic group will be receiving most of the resolute battering.

And here's the latest from Amnesty:

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and world leaders, including Prime Minister Gordon Brown, must speak out strongly and in public against human rights abuses in Tibet and elsewhere in China or risk giving 'tacit endorsement' to human rights abuses being committed in preparation for the Olympic Games, Amnesty International said today in a new report.

The report, China: The Olympics countdown - crackdown on activists threatens Olympics legacy (PDF), shows a human rights situation that is getting worse, not better, in the run-up to the Olympics. In Tibet and the surrounding areas, the police and military crackdown on demonstrators has led to serious human rights violations in recent days. In and around Beijing, the Chinese authorities have silenced and imprisoned peaceful human rights activists in the pre-Olympics 'clean up'. Promises of 'media freedom' have not been honoured, with reporters denied free access to Tibet. Reports suggest that information controls are also being extended to cover SMS text messaging in Beijing.

IOC president Jacques Rogge has repeatedly insisted that the Olympics would be "a force for good" in China.