Eastern Turkestan Islamic movement officially listed as terrorist organization Tashkent

The Eastern Turkestan Islamic movement was listed among other terrorist organizations at the request of the Governments of Afghanistan, Kirghizia, the United States and China. Right now, the UN list comprises 162 individual terrorists and terrorist organizations.

The US Embassy in Uzbekistan referred to this UN decision as an important step for the sake of expanded Central Asian cooperation against common terrorist threats. This organization is accused of cooperating with Al-Qaida.

Talking to RIA-NOVOSTI, US Embassy officials noted that the movement had its subsidiaries in Kirghizia, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and China's Sinkiang province. This organization aims to establish a fundamentalist Moslem state called Eastern Turkestan.

With this in mind, Eastern Turkestan's terrorist groups have perpetrated more than 200 terrorist acts throughout the 1990-2001 period, killing over 160 people and wounding 440 more.

The movement maintains close-knit financial ties with Al-Qaida; many of its members were trained at Afghan terrorist camps at the expense of Al-Qaida and the Taliban.

This organization has been cooperating with other militant Islamic Central Asian organizations, including the Islamic movement of Uzbekistan, which also has connections with Al-Qaida, and which is mentioned in the UN list, as well.