Muslim executed for trying to "split" China

BEIJING, Feb 9 (Reuters) China has executed a Uighur activist in a far-flung northwestern city for attempting to ''split the motherland'' and possessing firearms and explosives, Radio Free Asia (RFA) said today.

Ismail Semed, who was deported to China from Pakistan in 2003, told the court a confession had been coerced, but he was executed nevertheless yesterday in Urumqi, capital of the predominantly Muslim region of Xinjiang, RFA quoted his widow, Buhejer, as saying.

''When the body was transferred to us at the cemetery I saw only one bullet hole in his heart,'' Buhejer told the US government-funded radio station.

Buhejer said she was informed about the decision to execute her husband on Monday and was allowed to meet him for just 10 minutes.

A spokeswoman for the Urumqi Intermediate People's Court said a group of people were executed yesterday, but she had no knowledge of specific cases. The Xinjiang regional government declined to comment.

China has waged a harsh campaign in recent years against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists pressing for an independent ''East Turkestan'' in Xinjiang.

REUTERS PDM VV1001