Foreign media condemn riots in Lhasa

Source: Xinhua | 03-24-2008 08:33

BEIJING, March 23 (Xinhua) -- A number of foreign media and public figures have condemned the recent riots in Lhasa, capital city of China's Tibet Autonomous Region, and criticized the biased reporting by some Western media.

Pakistan Television aired on Saturday evening videotaped scenes of violence in Lhasa staged by separatist-minded rioters, and stressed in a commentary that Tibet is an inalienable part of China. It said Pakistan categorically opposes any attempts aimed at violating China's sovereignty and territorial integrity.

In a commentary on Saturday, Indonesia's Chinese language newspaper Guo Ji Ri Bao said the violence dealt a heavy blow to the economic activities and public order in Lhasa.

Some Western media or groups "harboring evil intentions" have exploited the criminal activities in Lhasa in a bid to attack China and tarnish China's image of peaceful development, it said.

The Los Angeles Times in the United States on Saturday publicized an article detailing a Swedish tourist's account of beatings, lootings and arson by the rioters. The report also quoted foreign witnesses and local residents as describing how the rioters set fire to shops and vandalized public facilities in downtown Lhasa.

Singapore's Lianhe Zaobao issued an editorial on Saturday criticizing the West for adopting a double standard on the Tibet issue. The West's ingrained arrogance toward other religions, races and civilizations is one of the major destabilizing factors in the world, it said.

The paper also carried an article saying that the riots in Lhasa were premeditated and well planned in a bid to incite public opinion in the West, provoke China and sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games. The distorted reporting by some Western media catered to such malicious attempts, it added.

The Chinese communities in New Zealand were outraged by the Western media's biased coverage of the Lhasa riots, New Zealand TV3 reported on Saturday in its evening news.

The Dominion Post on Saturday published a reader's letter criticizing some people for being too eager to try to link what happened in Lhasa with the issues of human rights and free trade agreements, without first tying to acquaint themselves with the actual situation in Tibet.

Bujar Bedalli, chairman of the Albanian-Chinese friendship association, said Saturday that it is well known that Tibet is an inalienable part of China. The Lhasa riots were premeditated splittist activities, he said.

The biased reporting by Western media was a manifestation of their traditional prejudices, Bedalli added.

The riots in Lhasa were by no means an isolated incident, but part of a series of elaborately planned moves designed to discredit China, said Constant in Badea, former director of Romania's national news agency Rompres, on Saturday.

Editor:Zhang Ning