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Beijing claims weapons discovered in monastery

Chinese forces found firearms hidden throughout a Tibetan temple in an ethnic Tibetan area of southwestern China which has been the scene of anti-Chinese riots in recent weeks, state television said.

Police, responding to what they said was a tip-off from the public, found 30 firearms in the monastery in Aba prefecture, Sichuan Province, last month, state television said in a report, a transcript of which was posted on the station’s Web site (www.cctv.com).

“At the time these firearms were scattered around, some were where the monks keep the scriptures,” policeman Lan Bo said. “They were modified semi-automatic weapons.”

Aba has seen confrontations between police and Tibetan protesters who, along with Tibetans in Tibet proper, have been protesting against China’s rule and calling for the return of the exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama.

Pro-Tibet protesters have also disrupted the global torch relay for this year’s Olympic Games to be hosted by Beijing.

The official People’s Daily newspaper accused Western media of distorting protests against the relay and playing up their scale.

The newspaper also lashed out at the European Parliament for failing to condemn the “Dalai clique,” which China accuses of being behind March 14 riots in Lhasa in which it says 19 people were killed. Exiled Tibetans give a far higher death toll.

“People cannot help but ask: the European Parliament always brags about human rights and freedom, so why does it turn a deaf ear to the serious human rights abuse of attacks on and killings of innocent people in Tibet?” the newspaper said in an editorial.

China’s ambassador to Ireland walked out on a speech on Saturday in which Irish Environment Minister John Gormley accused China of human rights abuses in Tibet.

Visiting Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf opposed the West’s “superimposition” of democratic values and human rights on China, state media said.

Musharraf criticized attempts to politicize the Olympics and said efforts have been taken to ensure the torch relay through Islamabad this week will be successful.

“We think that politics must be kept out of sports,” Musharraf said in a speech yesterday to a Beijing university audience.

China is one of Pakistan’s closest allies and a major source of investment, trade and armaments.

Pakistan has lent support to Beijing’s fight against groups involved in a simmering, low-intensity battle for independence in China’s traditionally Muslim western region of Xinjiang. Some of those militants are believed to train in Pakistan’s lawless tribal areas.

Musharraf also pledged that the torch relay’s one-day stop in Islamabad would be uneventful, unlike its chaotic stops in Europe and the US.

“We have taken all measures to ensure its security,” he said. “There is not one man in Pakistan who would do anything against the interests of China.”

But he did warn against outsiders trying to disrupt the relay.

“We have to take care that there is no infiltration by some elements who are bent on disrupting our understanding and great relationship,” Musharraf said.

He did not give details.
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