China Says It Has Evidence Dalai Lama Incited Riots

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March 31, 2008

China Says It Has Evidence Dalai Lama Incited Riots

By DAVID BARBOZA

SHANGHAI â?? After two weeks in which China contended that Tibetâ??s government in exile had instigated the riots earlier this month to tarnish the coming Summer Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese government on Sunday issued for the first time what it said was evidence of the plot.

Xinhua, the state-run news agency, said the Chinese police had a confession written by an unidentified monk who they said received orders from supporters of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner.

In what an article described as the confession, the monk said: â??For the sake of protecting myself, (the Dalai Lama clique) asked me not to participate in the demonstrations in person, just in charge of stirring people up.â?�

The Chinese government has not held a news conference to identify the monk or explain the circumstances of the confession, so it was not possible to verify either the existence of the monk or of such a statement.

For weeks, China has said it has strong evidence that the riots and protests in Tibet and neighboring regions were orchestrated by the â??Dalai clique.â?�

The Tibetan government, based in Dharamsala, India, quickly dismissed such claims, saying that China was trying to pin blame on Tibetan exiles.

â??These are baseless allegations,â?� Tenzin Taklha, the Dalai Lamaâ??s secretary in Dharamsala, said in a telephone interview on Sunday. â??Their spinmasters are trying to put the blame on us.â?�

Mr. Taklha called on China to allow an independent organization to investigate the accusations.

Since riots erupted March 14 in Lhasa, Tibetâ??s capital, journalists and diplomats have been prevented from traveling freely in Tibet and neighboring regions with large Tibetan populations, some of which have faced serious unrest.

Pressure continues to mount for China to negotiate with the Dalai Lama and find a solution to a problem that has already begun to affect preparations for the Olympics. China has tried to convince other countries that the Dalai Lamaâ??s supporters are behind the unrest and that they finance and equip separatists inside China.

On Saturday, China said it had seized a cache of guns, ammunition, explosives and sophisticated communications equipment at a Buddhist monastery in Sichuan Province, a part of southwestern China that has been the scene of Tibetan protests.

The police in Katmandu, the capital of Nepal, scuffled Sunday with Tibetan protesters near the Chinese Embassy. More than 100 people, some of whom were chanting pro-independence slogans, were detained, Reuters reported.

In Athens, protesters tried to disrupt the Olympic torch ceremony, as Greece handed over the flame to China. The government plans to hold a ceremony in Tiananmen Square in Beijing on Monday, before the Olympic torch begins its journey around the world.

European Union foreign ministers, meeting in Slovenia over the weekend, also called for an end to violence in Tibet and for talks between China and the Dalai Lama.

But Chinese leaders continue to take a hard-line approach. They contend that the Dalai Lama and his government in exile have orchestrated a violent separatist campaign, resulting in the recent clashes that killed about 20 people and wounded hundreds in Lhasa and neighboring regions.

Tibetan groups say Chinaâ??s harsh suppression of the protests and riots has killed more than 140 people and has resulted in the detention and harassment of hundreds of Tibetans, including monks.

The Chinese government also said it had arrested 26 people suspected of rioting in Aba County, Sichuan Province.
There seems to be little room for compromise. China says the Dalai Lama has walked away from negotiations and has lied.

For his part, the Dalai Lama says that he does not support violence, that he supports having the Olympic Games in Beijing and that he is willing to negotiate.

Group Tries to Block Torch

ATHENS â?? Shouting â??Free Tibetâ?� and flashing red banners reading â??Stop Genocide in Tibet,â?� demonstrators charged a police cordon here on Sunday, trying to block the Olympic flame from making its final 100-yard run into a sprawling marble arena.

Backed by riot squads, scores of police officers detained 10 of an estimated 15 demonstrators, taking them to Greeceâ??s national police headquarters minutes after the ceremony began.

Greece carried out a major security operation for the event, deploying more than 1,000 police officers and changing the flameâ??s route at least three times.

Yet even before the handover began, three supporters of Falun Gong were detained outside Panathinaiko Stadium for distributing leaflets on the spiritual movement outlawed in China.

Somini Sengupta contributed reporting from New Dehli.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/wo...html?ref=world

China also claims its products are safe, yet we find them painted with lead. I wouldn't trust Xinhua as a reliable source of information or the Chinese government that owns it.

i been seenin this on the news these "riots" in tibet and so forth. ive seen a lot of monks bein dragged around and beatin by police and soldiers but riots? i seen a riot in L.A. i was in miami duting a riot and i saw on the tv the riot at the DNC in '68. in these riots i seen people bein beaten and arrested and dragged around but one other thing ive saw was group violence by the rioters such as the occasional molitov cocktail or a rock thrown people fighting and looting over turning cars and settin things on fire. them are the things that seem to be missin from these "rioting" monks. im thinkin that if more than 5 people gather in one place the chinese are goin to call it a riot.

but thats right i forgot penn and teller told me that the dali lama is a supporter of terrorism and violance and they are celeberaties so it must be true.