April 3, 2008
CHINA has taken its offensive against the Dalai Lama to new heights, claiming it has uncovered a Tibetan guerilla ring that not only staged the deadly March 14 riot in Lhasa but is preparing suicide attacks before the Olympic Games at the behest of the exiled Tibetan leader.
Beijing has accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating the protests, which began peacefully in Lhasa on March 10 before degenerating into violence on March 14, but has been under international pressure to back up its claims.
On Sunday the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua, released a detailed report accusing five Tibetan groups, all affiliated with the Tibetan government-in-exile, of a conspiracy to create a "Tibetan people's uprising", including holding training camps for "armed struggle".
On Tuesday a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security, Wu Heping, went further, announcing that "key suspects" in a terrorism ring had been arrested and had confessed that they were directed by an official of the "Dalai clique".
"The next plan of the Tibetan independence forces is to organise suicide squads for launching violent attacks," Mr Wu said. "They claim that they fear neither bloodshed nor sacrifice."
He said one of the unnamed suspects admitted that from November 2006 he had recruited 12 people for the terrorist network to overthrow Chinese rule in Tibet. Police searches of several monasteries in Tibetan areas had uncovered 176 guns, 13,013 bullets, 350 knives and 3500 kilograms of explosives.
Mr Wu provided no evidence linking the weapons to the Dalai Lama, but said: "He is the one who encouraged those activities."