China jails Uighur 'separatists'

The Xinjiang Supreme Court on Wednesday said 39 people had been sentenced to prison after they were convicted of crimes that included organizing and leading Uighur separatist terror groups.

Other offences included inciting ethnic hatred, both verbally and through the distribution of audio and video material.

"Violent terrorism has become a major threat to ethnic unity and social stability in Xinjiang," the court said in a statement. "We must eliminate from the root the soil where violent terrorist thoughts should grow by severely cracking down on the criminal activities of spreading terrorism audios and video."

Just over 40 percent of people in the restive region are ethnic Uighurs, a Turkic group the majority of which is Muslim. A similar proportion belong to China's majority ethnic Han group.

'Spreading jihad'

Among those convicted in a hearing on Tuesday was 25-year-old Maimaitiniyazi Aini, who was sentenced to five years in prison for inciting ethnic hatred and discrimination through chat group comments, the Supreme Court said.

One Uighur man was also jailed for 15 years after he preached jihad, or holy war, to his son and another young man, the court said.

Uighur separatists have been waging a low-level insurgency for decades, but recent attacks have become increasingly bold and bloody. China has blamed several incidents, including a bomb and knife attack that killed 29 in the southwestern city of Kunming, on the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement.

Uighur activists claim the violence has been fueled by discriminatory policies imposed by the ethnic Han.

rc/lw (AFP, AP)