Dalai Secessionist Attempts Doomed To Fail

LHASA, March 17 (Xinhua) -- Memories of horror were alive again. Rioting that erupted in Lhasa on Friday resembled two previous riots in 1959 and 1989, only in its cruelty and always indisputable links to peace-preaching Dalai Lama.

On March 10th, more than 300 monks from the Zhaibung Monastery ventured into downtown Lhasa. The monks, who were supposedly converted to peace, were invective and aggressive, and flagrantly confronted with the security forces.

In the Sera Monastery, ten monks held up flags of the so-called Tibetan exile government and shouted "Tibetan independence". In the ensuing days, a few monks chanted independence slogans and challenged officers who were maintaining order. Lime and boiling water were poured over those around them, and stones rained down.

In blatant attempts to create sensation, three monks in the Zhaibung monastery lacerated their bodies with knives and took pictures of one another, photos that were to be used to blame others for the harm they inflicted upon themselves, police said.

Affrays turned violent, and losses were grave. The mob on Friday set off a destruction rampage and spared nothing and nobody along their way. Rioters set fire to buildings, torched dozens of police cars and private vehicles and looted banks, schools and shops. Innocent civilians were stabbed, stoned and scourged. At least 10 died, mostly from burns.

In the shocking degree of cruelty which local Tibetans said they had not seen in their whole lives, "brutal" was an understatement of the true picture, but the word was only reserved for the mob, and not for the policemen.

Throughout the incident, Lhasa police officers exercised great restraint. They remained patient, professional and were instructed not to use force. In humanitarian spirit, they even rescued the malicious monks who attempted sensation through hurting themselves. But such restraint was met with even more malice.

Young officers -- fathers, husbands and brothers -- were stoned, lunged, stabbed and clubbed, like any other innocent victim. Twelve of them were badly injured, two of them critical.

Such hostility was not "non-violence" as Dalai preached, but what the "revered" monk practiced. Religious leaders, local Tibetans and other residents stood out and condemned the riot.

It is obvious that the latest well-planned sabotage in Lhasa was another bloody exercise of Dalai clique's political conspiracy.

The Dalai coterie fled to India following a failed armed rebellion in 1959, but they were neither willing to say farewell to their privilege under the feudal serfdom, nor to see a flourishing new Tibet.

From the frequent armed assaults along the border areas in the 1960s, to the bloody Lhasa riot in 1989, the secessionist activities backed by the Dalai clique never stopped.

In recent years, the Dalai clique has been telling the world that they has stopped seeking "Tibetan independence". However, it is just another huge lie.

In an effort to fan up the international community to link the "Tibet issue" with the Beijing Olympics, he repeatedly preached during his frequent international trips that the year 2008 is of key importance and the Olympic Games would be the "last chance" for the Tibetans.

How can the Dalai clique justify themselves when the Tibetan Youth Congress vowed to pursue "Tibet independence" at the cost of blood and lives in a March 10 statement, which says "they would never give up the fight for Tibet independence"?

Starting from March 10, the group launched a so-called "Marching to Tibet" in India. Organizers claimed that once they were blocked outside China, they would stage protests and instigate followers to echo them by making troubles inside China.

After the riot broke out in Lhasa, the Dalai clique maintained real-time contacts through varied channels with the rioters, and dictated instructions to his hard core devotees and synchronized their moves, police sources say. Evidence again mounted against the Dalai coterie's trumpet for "non-violence", exposing them as a deceitful bunch.

It has been the common understanding of the international community that Tibet is an inseparable part of China. No country in the world recognizes the so-called "Tibetan government-in-exile". The series of farces and sabotages by the Dalai clique were strongly opposed by the international community.

On March 10, several Tibetan separatists staged a torch lighting ceremony in front of the ancient archeological site of Olympia of Greece to protest against the upcoming Games in Beijing. The much-ridiculed episode was soon over when police drove them out.

The "marching to Tibet" in India became another aborted act as the crowd were greeted by Indian police awaiting in the midway.

All these facts have come to say and will continue to prove that the Dalai group's ill-willed attempts to destabilize Tibet, in whatever forms, will not succeed, since such efforts go against the popular will of the international community and 2.8 million people in the Tibet Autonomous Region.

(Xinhua's Lhasa Bureau contributes to this report)

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