The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM)
March 12, 2008
Introduction
The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is a militant Muslim separatist group in the Xinjiang province in northwest China. The U.S. State Department listed the ETIM as a terrorist organization in 2002 during a period of increased U.S.-Chinese cooperation on antiterrorism matters in the wake of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
What is the East Turkestan Islamic Movement?
A small, militant Muslim separatist group based in western Xinjiang province of China—a vast, thinly populated region that shares borders with several countries, including Afghanistan and Pakistan. The ETIM is one of the more extreme groups founded by Uighurs, the Turkic-speaking ethnic majority in Xinjiang, seeking an independent state called East Turkestan. Most Uighurs, according to the U.S. State Department, do not support the movement to establish an independent East Turkestan. China’s communist regime, which fears that China could splinter if regional separatist movements gain ground, has long called the ETIM a terrorist group; after September 11, China warned the Bush administration that the ETIM had ties to al-Qaeda. In August 2002, after months of pressure from Beijing, the Bush administration announced it would freeze the group’s U.S. assets. But experts say detailed, reliable information about the ETIM is hard to come by, and they disagree about the extent of the ETIM’s terrorist activities and its ties to global terrorism.
Who are the Uighurs?
The Uighurs (pronounced WEE-guhrs) are an ethnic minority group numbering about 8 million. Their ethnicity, language, and culture is more similar to the Turkic peoples of neighboring Central Asian republics. Although the ETIM seeks to establish an independent Islamic regime, the majority of Uighurs are Sunni and do not support an Islamic state.
Does the ETIM have ties to al-Qaeda?
U.S. and Chinese officials say it does, but some experts are less sure. The State Department reports that the ETIM has received “training and funding” from Osama bin Laden’s terror network and that ETIM militants fought in the ranks of al-Qaeda against the United States in the Operation Enduring Freedom. U.S. officials are said to have gathered information about Uighur militants linked to al-Qaeda from twenty-two Uighurs captured in Afghanistan and detained at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Five of the detainees were released in 2006 and were accepted by Albania instead of repatriating to China.
In January 2002, a Chinese government study reported that the ETIM has received money, weapons, and support from al-Qaeda. According to the report, some ETIM militants were trained by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan , crossed back into Xinjiang, and set up terrorist cells there. But while experts agree hundreds of Uighurs left China to join al-Qaeda and its Taliban hosts in Afghanistan, some China specialists doubt the ETIM currently has significant ties to bin Laden’s network. Beijing has a long history of falsifying data, they say, and since September 11 the Chinese have repeatedly tried to paint their own campaign against Uighur separatists in Xinjiang as a flank of the U.S.-led war on terrorism—and to get Washington to drop its long-standing protests over Chinese human rights abuses in its crackdowns in Xinjiang. ETIM leader Hahsan Mahsum was killed in raids on camps linked to al-Qaeda in 2003.
Does the ETIM target Americans?
The State Department says that in May 2002 two ETIM members were deported to China from Kyrgyzstan for allegedly plotting attacks on the U.S. embassy in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek, as well as other U.S. interests abroad.
What kinds of attacks has the group launched?
Little is known about which specific attacks were carried out by the ETIM, but China blames separatists in Xinjiang, including the ETIM, for more than 200 terror attacks between 1990 and 2001. Chinese authorities say Uighur terrorists have bombed buses, markets, and government institutions; assassinated local officials, Muslim leaders, and civilians; and burned down businesses, resulting in some 160 deaths and 440 injuries overall. James Millward of the East-West Center writes that the Chinese, while rightfully afraid of separatist violence, have “exaggerated” the threat to “crisis proportions,” contending that radical Uighur violence has not escalated since early 1998. Experts say that few attacks have been carried out since then.
Why did the United States decide to target the ETIM?
Experts disagree. State Department officials say they took a tougher line because of persuasive new evidence that the ETIM has financial links to al-Qaeda and has targeted U.S. interests abroad. But some experts call the sharp shift in U.S. policy on Xinjiang an obvious bid for warmer relations with China. The United States had repeatedly rebuked China for human rights violations in Xinjiang and resisted linking the post-September 11 war on terrorism with Chinese attempts to quash Uighur separatism. Skeptics note the timing: The Bush administration’s clampdown on the ETIM came as the United States sought to prevent a possible Chinese veto in any UN Security Council debate over Iraq, shortly after Chinese officials said they would tighten regulations on the export of missile-related technology, and before Chinese President Jiang Zemin’s scheduled October 2002 visit to President Bush’s Texas ranch.
How does China respond to the separatist movement?
The United States accused China of using the war on terrorism as an excuse to suppress political dissent in Xinjiang. In the region, since September 11, China has beefed up military and police units; detained thousands of suspected militants; and restricted religious rights, which are protected under China’s constitution. The U.S. State Department's human rights survey for 2007 says the Chinese government continued to tightly restrict Muslims' religious activity in Xinjiang.
Human rights groups are concerned that the U.S. characterization of the ETIM as a terrorist group has given the Chinese a free hand to repress Uighurs. Experts say that while some Uighurs want full independence, others simply want greater autonomy, economic opportunities, and better protection from human rights abuses and discrimination. Many Uighurs complain of harassment by Chinese authorities, who have reportedly closed mosques in Xinjiang.
Weigh in on this issue by emailing CFR.org.
Email
This report argues that the United States must lead with domestic action on climate change and proposes a U.S. negotiating strategy for a global UN climate agreement that includes commitments from all major economies, while also promoting a less formal Partnership for Climate Cooperation that would focus the world's largest emitters on implementing aggressive emissions reductions.
This Task Force report examines changes in Latin America and in U.S. influence there, while taking account of the region's enduring importance to the United States. The Task Force offers an agenda for U.S. policy toward Latin America and identifies four critical areas that should provide the basis of a new U.S. approach.
After two decades of liberalization, many countries around the world are adopting new restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) that could retard continued progress. The authors make recommendations for correcting this protectionist drift by proposing guidelines for how countries can better regulate FDI yet still reap its economic benefits.
In this Council Special Report, the authors make a strong case that the Bush administration’s policy of diplomatic isolation of Syria is not serving U.S. interests, and offer informed history and thoughtful analysis of the country and its external behavior.
