China accuses Tibet spiritual leader of colluding with jihadis to destabilise the Olympic Games
BEIJING: Far from heeding international calls for dialogue with the Dalai Lama, China has accused Tibet’s exiled god-king of colluding with Muslim terrorists to destabilise the country before the Olympic Games. State-run newspapers have issued prominent leading articles that are part of a campaign to portray the Dalai Lama as the mastermind of the deadly riots that have rippled through Tibet and ethnic Tibetan communities.
China’s rulers have presented the violence as a plot supported by only a minority of Tibetans. The People’s Daily said that the Dalai Lama had never abandoned violence after fleeing China in 1959 after a failed revolt against Beijing. “The Dalai Lama is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage to force the Chinese Government to make concessions to Tibetan independence.”
China also accused Tibet’s leader of planning attacks with the aid of violent Uighur separatist groups seeking an independent East Turkestan for their Muslim people in the Xinjiang region of China. It said: “The Dalai clique has also strengthened collusion with Turkestan terror and planned terror activities in Tibet.”
