CHINA yesterday accused the Dalai Lama of using unrest in Tibet to back demands for Tibetan independence ahead of the Beijing Olympic Games.
The attack on the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader – who has also been accused of colluding with Muslim Uighur separatists in China's western Xinjiang region – was part of a drive to stifle anti-Chinese unrest before the Games begin in August.
Protests in Tibet began when Buddhist monks demonstrated in the capital, Lhasa, on 10 March, the 49th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule, and again on subsequent days. On 15 March, anti-Chinese rioting shook the city. Chinese authorities said one policeman and 18 civilians were killed.
Anti-government protests then flared in nearby provinces with large ethnic Tibetan populations, leading to violence in which several people were killed and many injured.
China's official Xinhua news agency reported yesterday that 94 people had been injured in Tibetan areas of China's Gansu region, almost all of them police.
In Sichuan, Gansu and other troubled provinces, troops continued high-profile patrols of Tibetan-populated towns, and kept schools and Buddhist monasteries under tight guard.
The Dalai Lama has criticised the violence and said he wanted talks with China to negotiate autonomy – but not independence – for his homeland.
However, Beijing is now claiming that the Dalai Lama, not failings in Chinese government policy, caused the trouble in Tibet and has accused him of wanting to ruin the Beijing Olympic Games.
Tibet's governor, Qiangba Puncog, was quoted as saying: "We must … win the final victory in all respects against the secessionist forces to help ensure a successful Olympic Games with a stable social situation in the Tibet Autonomous Region."
The People's Daily, the official newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party, said yesterday the Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, had never abandoned violence after fleeing the country in 1959 following a failed revolt against Beijing.
It said: "The so-called 'peaceful non-violence' of the Dalai clique is an outright lie. The Dalai Lama is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage to force the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibet ."
However, Beijing's efforts to isolate the Dalai Lama could prove a sticking point in relations with Taiwan's president-elect Ma Ying-jeou. He said the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader would be "more than welcome" in Taiwan, and that an Olympic boycott by the disputed island was possible.
China describes Taiwan as a breakaway province that must accept reunification.
On Saturday, the People's Daily accused the Dalai Lama of planning attacks with the aid of violent Uighur separatist groups seeking an independent East Turkestan for their largely Muslim people in Xinjiang.
"Tibet is an inseparable part of China. In the history of the world there has never been a country or a government that has ever recognised Tibetan independence," Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme was yesterday quoted by Xinhua as saying.
The 86-year-old Tibetan native is a vice-chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the top advisory body to parliament.
China's denunciations of the Dalai Lama have drawn applause from many Han Chinese, who have said Western critics fail to appreciate their government's efforts to develop Tibet.
However, on Saturday, 29 Chinese dissidents urged Beijing to allow United Nations investigators into Tibet, and open direct dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
CLOUDS HIT FLAME EVENTCLOUDS over the ruined birthplace of the Olympics yesterday prevented organisers from kindling the torch for the 2008 Games in the traditional way – using the sun's rays via a mirror.
Instead, a Greek actress dressed as a pagan high priestess used a flame lit at a rehearsal. That flame will be sent to China if the storms that are forecast scuttle the official lighting ceremony at the 2,600-year-old Temple of Hera at Olympia.
But bad weather is not the only headache for the mock-ancient ceremony's organisers – who took the rare step of moving yesterday's preparations back an hour to avoid rainstorms.
Some 1,000 police will surround Olympia to keep a planned pro-Tibet protest away from today's flame lighting for the Beijing Games. A Greek government official said authorities were "
determined to safeguard the flame ceremony", adding: "This has nothing to do with political disputes."
The full article contains 717 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
