Country Reports on Terrorism 2012

signing a Framework Agreement on the Bangsamoro in October. A comprehensive peace
agreement with the MILF has the potential to improve peace and security in Mindanao.
The shift from large-scale assaults to smaller-scale attacks on domestic targets continued in
Indonesia with attacks on police, including the murder and possible torture of two officers who
had been investigating an alleged terrorist training camp that was associated with Jemaah
Anshorut Tauhid. Militants also attempted to assassinate a provincial governor with a pipe bomb
in the midst of a large crowd. Jemaah Islamiya member Umar Patek – the principal bomb maker
in the 2002 Bali bombings – was found guilty and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Indonesia
continued its close multilateral cooperation in Southeast Asia, most notably as co-chair of the
Global Counterterrorism Forum’s (GCTF) Southeast Asia Working Group and as co-chair of the
ASEAN Defense Ministers Meeting Experts’ Working Group on Counterterrorism.
Australia maintained its position as a regional leader in the fight against terrorism and worked to
strengthen the Asia-Pacific region’s counterterrorism capacity through a range of bilateral and
regional initiatives in organizations such as ASEAN, the ASEAN Regional Forum, and the
Pacific Island Forum. Australia is also co-chair of the GCTF Southeast Asia Working Group.
The Japanese government continued to participate in international counterterrorism efforts at
multilateral, regional, and bilateral levels through the Seventh ASEAN-Japan Counterterrorism
meeting and the Japan-China Counterterrorism Consultations. Australia, Indonesia, Japan, China,
and New Zealand are founding members of the GCTF. The Government of the Philippines
hosted the second GCTF Southeast Asia Working Group meeting in November, which focused
on youth radicalization.
CHINA
Overview: China’s cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism issues remained
marginal with little reciprocity in information exchanges. China continued to expand cooperation
with countries in the region and conducted joint counterterrorism training exercises with
Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Thailand. China’s domestic
counterterrorism efforts remained primarily focused against the East Turkestan Islamic
Movement (ETIM) in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) of northwest China. In
public statements, government officials singled out the “Three Evils” of extremism, separatism,
and terrorism in Xinjiang as the main terrorist threat to the nation and characterized Uighur
discontent as terrorist activity. Human rights organizations continued to maintain that China used
counterterrorism as a pretext to suppress Uighurs, a predominantly Muslim ethnic group that
makes up a large percentage of the population of the XUAR.
2012 Terrorist Incidents: The Chinese government characterized two incidents in the XUAR as
terrorist attacks. On February 28, nine violent extremists armed with knives attacked a crowd in
Kashgar prefecture, reportedly killing 15 and injuring 16 pedestrians. Seven of the attackers were
reportedly killed in the ensuing clash with police, and the alleged ringleader, a Uighur, was
sentenced to death. On June 29, six Uighurs allegedly attempted to hijack a Chinese airliner en
route from Hotan to Urumqi, and injured 10, reportedly using aluminum pipes from a dismantled
pair of crutches. According to official Chinese media, three Uighurs were sentenced to death and
one received life in prison after reportedly confessing to the crimes of organizing, leading, or
participating in a terrorist group, hijacking, and attempting to detonate explosives on an aircraft.
40