OPINION> Commentary
Heed danger signals
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-06-06 07:46

The three recent cases of bomb attacks police authorities cracked in Qamdo, Tibet autonomous region, along with several others in the wake of the March 14 riot in Lhasa, present a worrisome new pattern of security threats.

Though none of the blasts caused any serious damage, they are a warning sign that separatist activities in Tibetan-inhabited areas are taking a dramatic turn to violence. This calls for our highest vigilance.

In all three cases, on April 5, 8, and 15 respectively, as well as in the one targeted at a township government in Qamdo on March 23, the suspects were Tibetan Buddhist monks. This inevitably reminds people of some other bewildering facts since the early-spring unrest in Lhasa.

If it was shocking for uninformed outsiders to see people in kasayas setting fire to residential homes and vehicles and beating innocent passers-by on Lhasa streets on March 14, it jolted our imagination even further that huge stocks of weapons and explosives were found in some monasteries in the Tibet autonomous region, and in Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu provinces.

Tibetan Buddhism is a religion of peace. Tibetans are a nice and peaceful people. We would never have a doubt about that.

The explosions carried out by monks, as well as the guns and bullets hid in monasteries, however, are proof that there are still loopholes to plug. Monasteries should not be allowed to become safe havens for criminal plots, or bases for sabotage. No people should be above or beyond the law, whether they are monks or secular commoners.

Judging from confessions of suspects in all the three latest cases, there is another factor causing concern - all were encouraged by the Dalai group's incitement and acted to echo the Lhasa riot.

With the Tibetan Youth Congress' ever more audacious preaching of violence, separatists working in tandem at home and abroad may trigger more violence and unrest.

Tibetan Youth Congress President Cewang Rigzin's recent call for suicide attacks, during an interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper, shows a dangerous direction the separatists are taking.

Since the hardcore separatist organization has openly embraced terror, we have no choice but to prepare to meet the threat.

(China Daily 06/06/2008 page8)