(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-04-19 07:35

The Tibetan Youth Congress is on the way from violence to terror, says an article in People's Daily. The following is an excerpt.

Tsewang Rigzin, head of "Tibetan Youth Congress(TYC)", recently told an Italian media that "it's a trend to use suicide bombers and that can be done to seek independence of Tibet".

Before that, his predecessor also said, "As long as it's good for our cause, we will use any measures at all costs, either violent or non-violent".

What tally with their words are their actions. We remember that, since the founding of the TYC, they have never been afraid to show their violent side .

We can see it from the recent activities organized by this group. It has continuously held various training classes, including those for guerilla fighting and for the making of bombs. It has kept committing violent criminal acts like looting and arson. Its members and supporters even openly attacked disabled torch bearers in front of the whole world.

But all of these are not accidental.

The TYC, deemed to be the pioneer of the Tibetan separatists, is one of the most influential and active groups of exiled Tibetans. In 1970, under the direct guidance of the Dalai Lama, it was founded in India. Later, some of its members clamored for "the use of violence forever". The then head of this group claimed that it "would take whatever measures necessary, including terrorist ones," to achieve their goal. To this end, they masterminded previous riots in Lhasa in 1987, 1988 and 1989 .

As their cause of seeking "Tibet independence" withers away, this group has shown the tendency to use more violence. During the riots on March 14, they burned civilians to death and tore stores down. In order to organize more violent actions in the future, they collected hundreds of guns, tens of thousands of rounds of ammunition, several thousand kilograms of dynamites and more than 10,000 detonators. Meanwhile, they said that they "planned to sacrifice an additional 100 Tibetan people for the cause".

Terrorism is the common enemy of peace and progress of mankind. However, the violent actions of the TYC can always win the support of some Western media organizations and politicians. Instead of being condemned, their actions are whitewashed into "peaceful demonstrations" for "human rights" .

All this strengthened the separatists' stand that "terrorist activities can create a wide influence and attract the attention of the international community to the Tibet issue". Such encouragement also strengthened their belief that "terrorist activities can reach best results with least costs."

(China Daily 04/19/2008 page4)