China accuses Tibetan group of al Qaeda links

Beijing: Beijing on Monday intensified its attack on the monk accusing him of committing 'monstrous crimes' and 'fraud' and alleged that a Tibetan outfit based in India had links with terror group al-Qaeda.

The Dalai Lama's two envoys Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen returned to India from talks with nothing more than an assurance from Beijing to hold the next round of dialogue at "an appropriate time".

At the meeting, the first after the unrest erupted in Tibet posing the most serious challenge to Beijing in the last two decades, China did some tough talking asking the Dalai Lama to make "credible moves" to stop violence and not to "sabotage" the Beijing Olympics to create conditions for the next round of parleys.

"Following the March 14 incident in Lhasa, the Dalai Lama has not only refused to admit his monstrous crimes, but also has continued to perpetuate fraud," the official Tibet Daily said.

Dismissing the Tibetan leader's talk about "genuine autonomy" and "greater Tibet region" as "fraudulent", the newspaper accused the "Dalai clique" of trying to confuse public opinion and trying to "incite ethnic hatred".

Describing the Dharamshala-based Tibetan Youth Congress (TYC) as the "armed spearhead of the 14th Dalai Lama group", the state-run Xinhua news agency said, "TYC has become a terrorist organisation."

"They (TYC) had also sought mutual support from international terrorist organisations such as al Qaeda and East Turkistan groups," Liu Hongji, expert at China Tibetology Research Centre in Beijing, was quoted as saying.

The 72-year old Nobel laureate living in exile in India, who has targeted by China for allegedly "masterminding" the violence, has insisted that he only wants greater autonomy for Tibet and is not asking for its independence.

Refusing to divulge much about the talks, the Tibetan government-in-exile said the Dalai Lama's envoys will arrive in Dharamshala on Wednesday to brief him.

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Prime Minister of the government-in exile Samdhong Rinpoche said that the envoys had conveyed to the Chinese side the feeling of the Dalai Lama that peace should be restored in Tibet immediately and an amicable solution of the vexed issue found at the earliest.

Dismissing allegations against the Dalai Lama, he dared China to prove them to the world community.

However, the Xinhua maintained that Chinese officials Zhu Weiqun and Sitar told the envoys that the riots in Lhasa on March 12 had given rise to "new obstacles" for resuming contacts and consultations with the "Dalai side".

The People's Daily online on Monday carried another article which said that despite the recent riots in Lhasa and disruption done to the Beijing Olympics torch relay, the central government still agreed to resume talks at the repeated requests of the Dalai Lama.