Security marks Silk Road torch relay

KASHGAR, China (Reuters) - The Olympic torch was paraded onWednesday through China's sensitive former Silk Road city ofKashgar, home to ethnic-minority Muslim Uighurs, under thescrutiny of soldiers and choreographed cheering crowds.

China banned all but carefully chosen members of thepublic, such as Islamic leaders in headdresses and children intraditional attire, from the relay route and ordered everyoneelse to stay at home and watch on television.

"We weren't allowed to go and see it," said a Uighur womanin the backstreets in the old part of the oasis city. "But evenif we were, I think people would have stayed away anyway."

China has accused Uighur separatists in oil-rich Xinjiangof plotting attacks with al Qaeda's support to help achievetheir goal of an independent country they call East Turkestan.

The torch relay was meant to be a symbol of national unityand pride for China, but it was dogged by anti-governmentprotests on its international leg after the clampdown onrioting in Tibet. At home, authorities are at pains to ensureits smooth journey, especially in troubled areas such asXinjiang.

As in Tibet, many Uighurs resent the migration of HanChinese to the region and controls on their culture andreligion.

Shops were shut in Kashgar as small groups waved Chineseand Olympic flags under a bright, clear sky. Between thegroups, the streets were deserted as a group of about 40security guards in blue T-shirts and black gloves accompaniedthe torch.

At the start, Uighur children, some holding large flags,chanted "Go China, Go Olympics, Go Sichuan and Go Kashgar" inthe square outside the giant Idkhar Mosque, closed to thepublic. The Sichuan mention referred to last month'sdevastating earthquake.

At the finish at People's Square, under a huge statue ofMao Zedong, the father of Communist China, Uighurshalf-heartedly waved flags in marked contrast to relayselsewhere in China where joyous crowds have thronged thestreets.

Everyone on the streets wore a sticker with a number andthe Olympic flame in an apparent security measure, as soldierslined the route at every 30 metres (yards).

"Kasghar will be even more harmonious after the torchrelay," the city's deputy Communist Party boss, Akbar Wufuer,told a select crowd of government officials and children at theevent's end, making no mention of the tight security.

FOILED PLOTS

China says it has cracked at least two Xinjiang-basedmilitant plots this year, one involving an attempt to bringdown an airliner flying to Beijing and the other to kidnapforeigners and carry out suicide attacks at the Olympics.

Propaganda posters in Chinese and English and flags towelcome the torch were strung along the relay route, thoughthere was little evidence of the Uighur language being used andhardly any signs or flags in Kasghar's backstreets.

"Welcome the Olympics, preserve stability," read one large,stern-sounding banner hung over a school entrance, in areminder of the region's ethnic woes.

Even the city's sewers appeared to have been included in athorough security sweep, with tape stuck across manhole coversas seals to make it easier to spot any undergroundinfiltration.

Foreign reporters were banned from talking to anyonewatching the torch along its route, despite China pledgingcomplete media freedom when it applied to host the Olympics.

On Saturday, the flame is due to be relayed through Lhasa,the Tibetan capital where anti-China protests broke out inMarch.

Foreign rights groups say China has carried out a crackdownin Xinjiang ahead of the Beijing Games, which open on August 8.

"Over the past three months a blanket ban on all religiousactivities and gatherings outside of state-controlled mosqueswas imposed," said Nicholas Bequelin of Human Rights Watch.

"Informers are everywhere, as evidenced by touristsinterrogated by the police about the most mundane activity suchhas having had a conversation with a Uighur fruit vendor."

(Editing by Nick Macfie and Alex Richardson)

(For more stories visit our multimedia website "Road toBeijing" at http://www.reuters.com/news/sports/2008olympics ;and see our blog at http://blogs.reuters.com/china )