Germans Probe China Terror Cell Claims
December 12, 2004German investigators are expected in China to examine allegations from Beijing that exiles from China's Uighur minority are planning terrorist activities from German soil, the weekly Der Spiegel said in its edition to appear on Monday. Germany has so far refused to follow up China's demand that it ban two Uighur groups based on its territory and ban its leaders, on the grounds that it lacks enough evidence, according to the magazine. The Muslim, Turkish-speaking Uighurs advocate separatism for the Islamic, northwestern Xinjiang region of China and Beijing has already classified four Uighur groups as terrorists. Two German investigators are due to travel to China to consult the evidence collected by the Chinese authorities, the weekly reported. German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder this week visited China for the sixth time in as many years, as China and Germany step up their cooperation both economically and politically.