China releases documentary of ETIM militant attacks amid criticism over Xinjiang camps

China has released a rare documentary showing for the first time some of the deadly attacks conducted by the separatist militant outfit East Turkistan Islamic Movement in Xinjiang, justifying the massive crackdown and detention of thousands of Uyghur Muslims in the restive province, amid mounting international criticism.

China has faced severe criticism in the last several months from the UN and western countries over reports that it is holding over a million people, mostly ethnic Uyghurs, in internment camps in Xinjiang in a bid to wean them away from religious extremism.

The resource-rich Xinjiang province is home to over 10 million Turkik-speaking Uighur Muslims. The province has been restive for several years due to settlements there of the Han Chinese.

In a white paper on Xinjiang issued in July this year, China defended the camps, describing the facilities as re-education centres aimed at de-radicalising sections of the Uyghur Muslim population.

The documentary telecast by the state-run CGTN on Saturday blamed the East Turkistan Islamic Movement (ETIM) for the source of terrorist attacks in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and its links with international terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and Islamic State (ISIS).

Titled "The Black Hand - ETIM and Terrorism in Xinjiang," the documentary for the first time showed some of the deadly attacks like the 2013 Tiananmen Square car bombing in Beijing in which the militants drove an SUV through a crowd of tourists, killing several people, and the terrorist attack at the Kunming Railway Station in Yunnan Province in 2014.

According to the documentary, the ETIM is part of "Pan-Turkism" and "Pan-Islamism," which were introduced into Xinjiang in the late 19th century.

Separatists forces attempted to create an independent state, the so-called "East Turkistan" to split Xinjiang from China, it said.

The release of the documentary came after the US House of Representatives' vote last week to pass a bill calling for sanctions on officials accused of human rights abuses in Xinjiang.

The bill focused on the widely reported mass detention of a million Uygurs and proposed to target those deemed responsible, including Xinjiang Communist party chief Chen Quanguo, who also sits on the 25-member Politburo.

The documentary also provided rare details of ETIM, stating that it was founded in 1997 by Hesen Mexsum, a man from Xinjiang's Kashi, who it said was killed by the Pakistani military forces in 2003.

While mentioning the presence of ETIM militants in Afghanistan and Turkey, it skirted any references to Pakistan whose military, under pressure from Beijing, has carried out aerial strikes against ETIM militant camps in the tribal areas.

In 2002, the UN Security Council designated the ETIM as a terrorist organisation. In December 2003, China's Ministry of Public Security outlawed the outfit. It was the first time the Chinese government formally recognised that a terrorist group was operating inside the country.

Chinese police have found evidence that the ETIM has received significant support from al-Qaeda, and previously from its slain leader Osama bin Laden, it said.

ETIM has sent its members to al-Qaeda training camps, it said, without mentioning where the camps existed.

Upon completion of training, some of the members have returned to China to conduct terrorist acts, it said.

About 20,000 Uyghurs from China have illegally snuck out to join the ISIS in Syria and some experts believe the number is about 50,00 to 10,000, Li Wei, a counter-terrorism expert at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations in Beijing told state-run Global Times.

ETIM is one of the four "East Turkistan" terrorist groups identified by the Chinese police. The World Uyghur Congress has also got involved with terrorist attacks that took place in China and it is the main organisation to defend other terrorist groups, Li said.

The Chinese police have found evidence that the ETIM has received significant support from al-Qaeda and bin Laden, notes the documentary which also blamed overseas forces colliding with the ETIM in carrying out many terrorist attacks in Xinjiang.

The police found the ETIM has produced a large number of online terrorism videos, which cost little and spread quickly. There are lessons on making bombs and training manuals for terrorist attacks, it said.

The terrorists' audio and videos had led many young people on the road of being obsessed with violence and terrorism. Such materials have served as a catalyst in inciting young people, Li said.

"Counter-terrorism efforts do not merely involve military operations. More importantly, they should aim to stop the spread of extremist ideas among young people," Li added.