Bus blasts breed fear in Yunnan

By Jill McGivering
BBC News, Kunming, Yunnan province

Kunming residents say the bus blasts have left them nervous

In recent weeks a series of bombings in China's western province of Xinjiang have compounded fears of an increased terrorist threat during the Olympic Games.

Across China, security has been tightened.

There are also worrying signs that the violence may be spreading.

Last month two bombs exploded on buses in Kunming in the normally peaceful province of Yunnan in China's southwest.

Two people were killed and many more injured.

Several weeks after the explosions, there is still a sense of nervousness in Kunming. Yunnan has never experienced a bomb attack before. Many people are shocked and angry.

Grudge?

Both bombs exploded on the number 54 bus route, which goes through the city centre. When I took the number 54, passengers admitted the bombings had left them feeling apprehensive.

Because of China's policy of opening up, terrorists have more opportunities to come to China and plan attacks Professor Zhang Jin-ping Yunnan Nationalities University

Some blamed Muslim terrorists who are fighting for Xinjiang to be separate from China. Others said it could be a local person with a grudge.

"The gap between rich and poor is so big," one man told me.

"People are dissatisfied and some want to cause trouble. But it's also possible that terrorists planned this attack because, during the Olympics, they can get more attention."

So who did plant the bombs? At the moment, the authorities do not seem to know for sure.

It could well have been a local person or group of people with a specific grievance. Public protests here are rising, many focused on official corruption or other areas of injustice. Many poor people feel angry that they have been excluded from Kunming's growth.

Separatists?

Most people were afraid to speak about this to a foreign journalist but one middle-aged woman, an office cleaner from Kunming, did talk plainly to me.

"If you're rich you can get anything," she said, "and you won't be wrong in the eyes of the law. If you're poor, you don't have rights. That's the way it is in China and it's not fair."

In a video, a little known group claimed to be waging jihad in Yunnan

But there could also be a more sinister explanation. Shortly after the bombs exploded, a relatively new and unknown Muslim separatist group, the Turkistan Islamic Party, posted a video on the internet, describing the bombing as "our blessed jihad in Yunnan".

In the video, a commander claims that the Yunnan bombs are part of a wider campaign to sabotage the Olympic Games. The motive, he says, is the Islamic struggle for independence by some Muslims in Xinjiang province.

The Chinese government seemed to dismiss the video as soon as it appeared, saying the group's claims were false.

Professor Zhang Jin-ping, an expert in counter-terrorism at Yunnan Nationalities University and an adviser to the Yunnan provincial government, also insists the bomb attacks were not carried out by terrorists.

He did acknowledge, though, that counter-terrorism measures have been increased in recent years.

Threat 'increasing'

The Yunnan government is taking advice on combating terrorism from the UK, the US and Israel, he said, and has strengthened control of its long borders with Burma, Vietnam and Laos.

Yunnan is in a vulnerable geographic position, he said - a possible through-point between Xinjiang and the outside world.

He added that as China continues to open up, the threat of terrorist attacks is increasing and evolving.

"So far, the threat of terrorism has been more from foreign countries," he said.

"Because of China's policy of opening up, terrorists have more opportunities to come to China and plan attacks. But in the future social concerns within China - not political ones - will make attacks more common."

In the past, China's tight social control meant bombings were very rare. Now everything is changing.

As China evolves into a more fluid and free society, one fear is that the current wave of bombings could be a sign of things to come.