The ****trait of an Hellish "Olympic Host" -- In Chinese Premier's Words:
"Blood and Fire, Life and Death"" / Reuters
China warns of "life and death struggle" over Tibet
Tue Mar 18, 2008 9:59pm EDT
By Lindsay Beck
BEIJING (Reuters) - China warned of a "life and death" struggle with the
Dalai Lama on Wednesday, as it sought to end a wave of protests in its
Tibetan regions with arrests and tightened political control.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao has accused the Tibetan spiritual leader of
masterminding the protests -- which culminated in a riot on Friday in
Tibet's capital, Lhasa -- from his base in the Indian town of
Dharamsala, where he lives in exile.
"We are in the midst of a fierce struggle involving blood and fire, a
life and death struggle with the Dalai Clique," Tibet's Communist Party
secretary, Zhang Qingli, told a teleconference of the region's
government and Party leaders.
"Leaders of the whole country must deeply understand the arduousness,
complexity and long-term nature of the struggle," he said in remarks
carried online by the China Tibet News.
China's state-run media says 105 people surrendered to police for taking
part in the Lhasa protests after authorities set a midnight deadline for
rioters to turn themselves in over the violence that the Dalai Lama's
officials believe killed 99.
China, whose Communist troops entered Tibet in 1950 after taking power
in Beijing, puts the death toll in Lhasa at 13. Foreign media are denied
access to the area without government permission, making the competing
claims difficult to verify.
China's authorities are keen to stem the violence quickly and regain
stability over the country's remote far-west before the Olympics, which
its capital, Beijing, will host in August.
But the Olympics also makes China more sensitive to international
opinion over its policies in Tibet and its response to the unrest, and
some activists overseas have demanded that the mountainous region be
withdrawn from the Olympic torch relay that starts next Monday.
A human rights watchdog called on China to allow independent monitors to
have access to detained Tibetans and said the government should publish
names of those in custody.
"Given the long and well-do***ented history of torture of political
activists by China's security forces, there is every reason to fear for
the safety of those recently detained," said Brad Adams, Asia director
of New York-based Human Rights Watch.
"Only by giving access to independent monitors can China give the world
some confidence that detainees are not being tortured or mistreated," he
said in a statement.
The governor of Tibet has said that those who gave themselves up could
be treated leniently, but warned that those who do not could face harsh
treatment.
Zhang also suggested greater political control in the region.
"We must continue to deepen our nationalist education and practically
strengthen the building of political power at the grassroots," he told
the teleconference.
"EPICENTRE OF LIES"
Despite re****ts that Lhasa was returning to normal, with tight security
but schools and businesses operating as usual, overseas groups re****ted
continuing protests in ethnic Tibetan towns and villages in western China.
The Free Tibet Campaign said it had two independent accounts of a
peaceful demonstration in the Gansu province town of Gannan, and the
Dharamsala-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said
there had been unrest in a Tibetan area of Sichuan province in which
security forces fired on protesters.
The re****ts could not be independently confirmed.
Both groups also cited a protest in Bora, near Gannan.
The Dalai Lama called for an end to the violence in Tibetan regions on
Tuesday, and said he would step down as the head of Tibet's exiled state
if that would stop the bloodshed.
But China's official Xinhua news agency called Dharamsala an "epicenter
of lies", repeating Premier Wen's assertion that the unrest was
"organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique".
"The Dalai clique maintained real-time contacts, sources say, through
varied channels with the rioters in Lhasa, and dictated instructions to
his hard core devotees and synchronized their moves," state news agency
Xinhua re****ted.
The Dalai Lama says the rioting in Lhasa, which followed several days of
peaceful marches by Tibet's Buddhist clergy, was spontaneous.
(Editing by John Chalmers)
Reuters
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