BEIJING, November 17 – Chinese troops have staged a day of counter-terrorism exercises in Tibet to practise fighting “terrorists” aligned with exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, officials and a Tibetan newspaper said.
The military exercises, dubbed “Himalaya 03”, included drills in suppressing riots, seizing kidnappers, freeing hostages and handling explosions and bio-chemical attacks, the Tibet Daily newspaper said on its Web site, www.chinatibetnews.com.
China accuses the Dalai Lama, who has lived in exile since fleeing to India after a failed uprising against Communist rule in 1959, of trying to split the mountainous region from the motherland.
“The Dalai Lama, on the one hand, has given enormous publicity to contacts and discussions with us, while, on the other hand, strengthening infiltration and violent terrorist activities,” the newspaper quoted Tibet’s Communist Party boss, Guo Jinlong, as saying.
“In Tibet, stability prevails over all else. Stability is the precondition for development.”
The Tibetan god-king says he merely seeks greater autonomy for Tibet. He has been an ardent supporter of peaceful means and was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1989 for his efforts.
Other Tibetans in exile, however, have grown impatient with his approach and advocate violence. Analysts say the future of the exile movement could be thrown into question with the death of the Dalai Lama, now nearing 70.
The exercises were designed “to show the firm determination of the Tibet Autonomous Region’s Party committee, government and all ethnic people in fighting terrorism and their ability to fight terrorism”, an official at Tibet’s foreign affairs office said.
“The Dalai separatist group overseas has been encouraged and supported by Western hostile forces, strengthening the damaging separatist activities they engage in by violent and non-violent means.”
In recent months, the Dalai Lama has visited several countries, including the United States, France, Spain and Japan, much to Beijing’s chagrin.
An editor at the Web site said the article and pictures of the military exercises took up the newspaper’s entire front page on Saturday.
Senior officials from the Tibetan government and Communist Party, and the deputy head of the Ministry of Public Security’s anti-terrorism bureau, watched the exercises last Friday in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, it said.
