New Video Released from Separatist Group
Chinese authorities dismiss groups' claims.
August 7, 2008— -- The Turkistan Islamic Party (TIP), has released a new video statement threatening the Olympics, just one day before the start of the Beijing Games -- the groups' second warning in the past three weeks, ABC News has learned.The video is dated Aug. 1, and features the same opening graphics as the first one: a burning Beijing Olympics logo and an explosion imposed over one of the stadiums.
The bulk of the video shows a man in a camouflage vest speaking into the camera. He is holding a rifle and stands in front of a banner with the Arabic phrase, "No God but God and Muhammed is His Prophet," his face hidden by a black shawl.
"Do not stay on the same bus, on the same train, on the same plane, in the same buildings, or any place the Chinese are," the man, who identifies himself as a representative of the group, warns Muslims, according to a translation from SITE Intelligence, a Maryland-based firm that tracks terrorism on the Internet. "Choose your side," the man adds, urging Muslims to keep their children away from the Games.
He describes the Chinese crackdown on Muslims and East Turkestan as barbarism, and says this is justification for jihad against the Communist regime. China, he states, rejects Islam, and forces Muslims into atheism by capturing and killing Islamic teachers and demolishing Islamic schools, according to SITE's translation. He takes particular aim at China's one-child policy, which he says has forced Muslim women to have abortions and destroyed their honor. "Through the Olympics, China is hiding the truth of its acts from the world," the man says, according to SITE.
How this second TIP video will influence Chinese security measures during the Olympics is not yet clear. China has been cracking down in recent months in the predominantly Uighur Xinjiang region in the northwest of China and authorities have made multiple arrests.
Though Chinese authorities played down the significance of TIP's first video, the second might push them to crack down further on Uighurs.
"Uighurs will be closely watched at the Games," said Christian LeMiere, managing editor of the London-based Jane's Country Risk.
The Beijing Olympic Committee Security Branch, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Chinese Embassy in Washington could not be immediately reached for comment.
Terrorism experts have said that separatist groups, whether they have the capacity to cause damage or not, will look to use the Olympics to get attention for their cause.
But U.S. intelligence officials told ABC News that the Uighur separatist groups within China are not well organized enough to conduct a large scale attack on China.
The TIP is a relatively unknown group. In the video released last month, the group's leader, known as Seyfullah, threatened attacks on the Olympics and claimed responsibility for the recent bombings in Kunming and Shanghai, China.Chinese authorities dismissed the groups' claims of responsibility, saying the bombings were not related to terrorism.
China has, however, repeatedly asserted that Uighur separatists, in particular a group called the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), poses the greatest threat of terrorism to China and the Olympics.