China accuses Dalai Lama of taking Olympics "hostage"

Posted 04 8 2008 12:24PM

BEIJING (Reuters) - China accused the Dalai Lama on Sundayof using unrest in Tibet to back demands for Tibetanindependence ahead of the August Olympic Games in Beijing.

The verbal attack on the exiled Tibetan leader, accused onSaturday of colluding with Muslim Uighur separatists in China'swestern Xinjiang region, was part of an intense propaganda andsecurity drive to stifle anti-Chinese unrest before the Games.

Unrest in Tibet began when Buddhist monks demonstrated inthe capital, Lhasa, on March 10, the 49th anniversary of afailed uprising against Chinese rule, and on subsequent days.

Five days later anti-Chinese rioting shook the city.Chinese authorities said one policeman and 18 civilians werekilled.

Anti-government protests then flared in nearby provinceswith large ethnic Tibetan populations, leading to violence inwhich several people were killed and many injured.

In Sichuan, Gansu and other troubled provinces troopscontinued conspicuously patrolling the streets of Tibetantowns, and kept schools and Buddhist monasteries under tightguard.

The official Xinhua news agency reported on Sunday that 94people had been injured in Tibetan areas in Gansu, almost allof them police.

The Dalai Lama, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism,has in recent days criticized the violence and said he wantstalks with China to negotiate autonomy, but not independence,for his homeland.

But the government is intensifying propaganda telling itscitizens and the rest of the world that the Dalai Lama, notfailings in government policy, caused the trouble in Tibet andaccusing him of wanting to ruin the Beijing Olympic Games.

"We must ... win the final victory in all respects againstthe secessionist forces to help ensure a successful OlympicGames with a stable social situation in the Tibet AutonomousRegion," Xinhua quoted Tibet's governor, Qiangba Puncog, assaying.

The ruling Chinese Communist Party's official newspaper,the People's Daily, said on Sunday that the Dalai Lama, winnerof the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, had never abandoned violenceafter fleeing China in 1959 following a failed revolt againstBeijing.

"The so-called 'peaceful non-violence' of the Dalai cliqueis an outright lie from start to end," the paper said. "... TheDalai Lama is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage toforce the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibetindependence."

STICKING POINT

Beijing's efforts to isolate the Dalai Lama could become asticking point with Taiwan's President-elect Ma Ying-jeou, whosaid the exiled leader would be welcome on the disputed island,and that an Olympic boycott was possible.

China calls Taiwan a breakaway province that must acceptreunification.

"The Dalai Lama, if he wants to visit Taiwan, he'd be morethan welcome," Ma told a news conference in Taipei on Sunday, aday after his landslide election win.

"If the situation in Tibet worsens, we would consider thepossibility of not sending athletes to the Games," said Ma --who wants closer economic ties and political dialogue withChina.

On Saturday the Peoples Daily accused the Dalai Lama ofplanning attacks with the aid of violent Uighur separatistgroups seeking an independent East Turkestan for their largelyMuslim people in Xinjiang.

Up to now, most of the ferocious criticism of the DalaiLama came from the official press in Tibet but others arejoining in.

"Tibet is an inseparable part of China. In the history ofthe world there has never been a country or a government thathas ever recognized Tibetan independence," Ngapoi Ngawang Jigmewas quoted by Xinhua as saying on Sunday.

The 86-year-old is a vice chairman of the Chinese People'sPolitical Consultative Conference, the top advisory body toparliament. He represented Tibet in 1951, signing the surrenderagreement with Beijing a year after Chinese troops took controlof Tibet for the Communist winners of China's civil war.

China's denunciations of the Dalai Lama have drawn applausefrom many Han Chinese citizens, who have said Western criticsfail to appreciate their government's efforts to develop Tibet.

But the campaign has begun to draw some domestic critics.

On Saturday, a group of 29 Chinese dissidents urged Beijingto end the bitter propaganda, allow United Nationsinvestigators into Tibet, and open direct dialogue with theDalai Lama.

Troops have choked off much travel in Tibetan areas andblocked access by foreign reporters, and officials have saidthey are also guarding against unrest in Xinjiang.

(Additional reporting by David Gray in Kangding, China;Ralph Jennings in Taipei; and Lindsay Beck and Kirby Chien inBeijing; editing by Tim Pearce)