The Olympic torch is expected to go through the region's capital, Lhasa, between June 19 and 21, part of a 85,000 mile tour around the world ahead of the games hosted in China
The Beijing Olympic torch is expected to go through the region's capital, Lhasa, between June 19 and 21, part of a 85,000 mile tour around the world ahead of the games.
By: Mary Ferguson
Apr 1, 2008 18:29 PM GMT
According to the Chinese government, Tibetans are planning suicide squads to disrupt the Beijing Olympics in August, including a plot for the Olympic torch to pass through Lhasa.
"To our knowledge, the next plan of the Tibet independence forces is to organize suicide squads to launch violent attacks" Wu Heping, the Public Security Ministry spokesman, said.
Tibet's government-in-exile, based in India, said the unfounded accusation was pure propaganda.
The Olympic torch is expected to go through the region's capital, Lhasa, between June 19 and 21, part of a 85,000 mile tour around the world. Advocates of Tibetan independence want to use the global focus on China ahead of the August Olympics to highlight their cause.
The Chinese police and government blame the Dalai Lama for inciting the violence in Lhasa, and in provinces inhabited by ethnic Tibetans including Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai. Lhasa, and some Tibetan-populated parts of western China were wracked last month by the biggest protests in almost 20 years.
Chinese authorities say supporters of the Tibetan Buddhist leader killed about 20 people and set hundreds of businesses and homes ablaze. The government-in-exile accuses Chinese security forces of killing 140 protesters.
"Over the past 50 years, resistance to Chinese rule in Tibet has been largely non-violent, due to the leadership of the Dalai Lama and the influence of Tibet's Buddhist culture," the International Campaign for Tibet's spokeswoman Kate Saunders said today in an e-mailed response to questions. Wu's comment about Tibetan suicide squads is "unfounded fear-mongering" that "serves to exacerbate an already tense situation," she said.
Chinese police arrested 37 people in connection with the riots of March 14, Wu said.
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