Plot to kidnap Olympic athletics uncovered in China

China says it has uncovered a criminal ring planning to kidnap athletes and others at the Beijing Olympic Games.

China says it has uncovered a criminal ring planning to kidnap athletes at the Beijing Olympic Games.

Ministry of Public Security spokesman Wu Heping told a news conference today that the ring based in the troubled western Xinjiang region was one of two that had been broken up.

Wu said 35 people were arrested in the latest case between March 26 and April 6 for plotting to kidnap athletes, foreign journalists and other visitors during the August Olympics.

Wu said: “This violent terrorist gang hoped to sabotage the Beijing Olympics by creating an international impact.”

``We face a real terrorist threat,'' Wu said.

He said police had also confiscated more than 20 lbs of explosives and eight sticks of dynamite and “jihadist” literature in the latest raids in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang.

Wu also provided further details on those arrested in a January case, saying they had been manufacturing explosives and were plotting to attack hotels, government offices and military targets in Shanghai, Beijing and other cities.

Wu said the gang had been acting on orders from a radical Islamic Xinjiang independence group, East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

Since the September 11 terror hijackings, China has tried to portray the simmering separatist rebellion in Xinjiang as being fuelled by terrorist organisations in Central Asia and the Middle East. But evidence made public has often been scanty.

Western embassies asked Beijing for more information after authorities said they broke up an attempt to hijack a plane in western China last month but so far no evidence has been provided, diplomats have said.

While the US has labelled the East Turkestan Islamic Movement a terrorist organisation, the State Department alleges widespread abuses of the legal and educational systems by the communist authorities to suppress Uighur culture and religion.