China concerned over new Syrian regime appointing Xinjiang Uygur militants to top military posts

Beijing: China said it is greatly concerned over the new Syrian government appointing foreign terrorist fighters, especially from the banned Uygur militant group 'the East Turkestan Islamic Movement', to senior military ranks.

The East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM) is active in China's volatile Xinjiang province.

These remarks were made by Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the UN, at the UN Security Council Briefing on Syria on Wednesday.

China is greatly concerned about the reports that said the Syrian Army has recently granted senior military ranks to a number of foreign terrorist fighters, including the head of Council, a listed terrorist organisation, the Turkistan Islamic Party, also known as the ETIM, Cong said.

He called on Syria to fulfil its counter-terrorism obligations and to prevent any terrorist forces from using Syrian territory to threaten the security of other countries, according to official media reports here.

Reports from Syria say that the new Syrian regime headed by de-facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa has appointed 50 new military officials of which six were foreign fighters, including that of ETIM.

The Army is being re-organised by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Islamist group that is now effectively in charge of the country following the overthrow of former President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month.

Based on the names that have been published, they are said to include Chinese Uyghurs, a Jordanian and a Turkish national. All are said to have been given high-ranking positions as colonels or brigadier-generals, BBC reported.

China has supported the Assad regime and was caught unawares by its sudden fall. Assad himself fled to Russia where he was granted asylum.

Thousands of fighters from many different countries joined the uprising against Assad as it became an all-out armed conflict when mass protests were met with violence by the security forces.

The new appointments appear to have been made in order to reward those fighters – whether from Syria or elsewhere – who played a significant role in the final triumph over the regime.

The issue is just one of many that could complicate any successful transition to a new political and social framework in Syria, the BBC report said.

For China, ETIM is a red rag as it blames the Uygur militant group for a number of militant strikes in different cities in China and Xinjiang where the Uygur Muslims who constituted the majority were restive over the large-scale settlements of ethnic Hans from other provinces.

For over a decade China has deployed thousands of security forces to control the militancy.

China is also apprehensive about the ETIM militants' presence in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime as Xinjiang shared borders with that country.

Fu said the situation in Syria is at a critical stage with daunting challenges.

The international community should strengthen solidarity and coordinate its actions to support and help Syria achieve stability and development.