FORECAST

British intelligence confirms the Dalai Lama’s claim that China incited the March 14th Lhasa riots in order to discredit the Tibet independence movement while China says the US supported Dalai Lama is the mastermind of efforts to sabotage the Olympics and destabilize China, paving the way for a US foothold in the geo-strategically important Himalayan region.

Britain’s GCHQ, a government intelligence and security agency that electronically monitors the globe via satellite, has confirmed the Dalai Lama’s claim that China incited the March 14th Lhasa riots that injured and killed scores of Tibetans.

Images downloaded from GCHQ space satellites show that the Chinese used soldiers from the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) to pose as Tibetan monks and trigger riots, giving Beijing an excuse to move into the region and crush the simmering unrest that has been growing for weeks.  Eyewitness reports reinforce British intelligence.

This would not be the first time Beijing has used policemen to pose as rioters in order to discredit and suppress civilian protests in Tibet.  The CCP did so during Tibetan protest in 1989.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao has accused the exiled Dalai Lama of masterminding the violence in Tibet’s capital and disputes the exiled governments death toll, noting instead that mostly innocent Han Chinese workers and businesspeople account for over a dozen dead.

Beijing is concerned that the Tibetan unrest, which quickly spread into China’s western provinces, will undermine the Olympics and persuade Taiwanese voters in the upcoming presidential elections to switch support from the pro-Beijing Nationalist Party to the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party.

Chinese state-controlled media also point to the Dalai Lama’s Washington connections playing a vital role in the recent riots, citing the US government’s funding of opposition organizations inside and outside Tibet as further attempts to destabilize China and enable the US to control the geostrategically important Himalayan region.

US NGOs like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) have mentored and trained Tibetan activists and funded pro-Tibet organizations.  Established during the early years of the Reagan administration at the behest of the CIA, the NED contradicts its NGO status since it operates as an apparatus of the US government and with a multi-million dollar budget, does what the CIA did covertly decades prior—destabilize governments that run counter to US interests.

The NED has been instrumental in other opposition movements or ‘colour revolutions’ across the globe and its connection to Tibetan protests lead some to believe that the recent events in Lhasa could become yet another ‘colour revolution’, this time crimson.

This marks another chapter in the ongoing battle between US global hegemony and Chinese ascendance.  At stake are Tibet’s rich natural resources (oil, gas, minerals) and its prime location astride the border with India, Washington’s newest anti-Chinese ally in Asia.

Further instability and government crackdowns in the region along with increasing tensions between China and the US can be expected in the lead up to the Olympics, which is providing ample leverage for the US-funded Tibetan cause.

Over the centuries, Tibet has been part of China’s dynastic empires and at other times enjoyed periods of autonomy, but in 1950 the PLA invaded Tibet and reclaimed it as inalienable Chinese territory.  As part of its Cold War strategy to undermine Communist China, the CIA funded the Dalai Lama and backed a failed uprising against Beijing that resulted in the Tibetan government’s exile to Dharmsala, India in 1959.

Tibet’s crimson-robed monks have increasingly led acts of civil disobedience against the Chinese authorities, demanding religious, cultural, and political autonomy and the return of their spiritual leader, the 14th and current Dalai Lama.  Peaceful protests on March 10th, the 49thanniversary of the failed uprising, turned violent by March 14th when police used gunfire and tear gas against the crowd and “demonstrators” rioted in response.

 

SUMMARY OF EVENTS: March 24 – 31, 2008

WORLD

NATO fighters accompanied Russian Tu-95 Bear strategic bombers on a strategic patrol flight on Wednesday, a Russian Air Force spokesman said.

NORTH AMERICA

United States

Behind the Pentagon’s closed doors, U.S. military leaders told President Bush Wednesday they are worried about the Iraq war’s mounting strain on troops and their families. But they indicated they’d go along with a brief halt in pulling out troops this summer.

The FBI has narrowed its focus to “about four” suspects in the 6 1/2-year investigation of the deadly anthrax attacks of 2001, and at least three of those suspects are linked to the Army’s bioweapons research facility at Fort Detrick in Maryland.

CIA chief Michael Hayden claims al-Qaeda is taking on ‘western-looking’ agents in order to facilitate their entry into the United State.

WESTERN EUROPE

The European Union may boycott the 2008 Beijing Olympics over “cultural genocide” in Tibet, the European Parliament’s president said on Tuesday.

EASTERN EUROPE

Central banks’ efforts to ease strains in the money markets are failing to stop financial institutions from hoarding cash, stoking fears that the recent respite in equity markets may not signal the end of the credit crisis.

Greece

The risk that the Beijing Olympics could become a public relations disaster for the Chinese government was underlined on Monday when three protesters breached heavy security and briefly interrupted the torch lighting ceremony in Greece.

Russia

Russian President-elect Dmitry Medvedev has warned that granting NATO membership to the former Soviet republics of Ukraine and Georgia could threaten European security.

Kosovo

Kosovo’s President Fatmir Sejdiuand and Prime Minister Hashim Thaci on Tuesday rejected Serbia’s proposal for partition of Kosovo along ethnic lines.

Belarus

Belarusian riot police arrested dozens of opposition protesters on Tuesday in the capital Minsk, and blocked hundreds of activists from entering a central square.

THE MIDDLE EAST

An American nuclear submarine has crossed the Suez Canal to join the US fleet stationed in the Persian Gulf, Egyptian sources say.

Israel

US Vice-President Dick Cheney has given strong backing to Israel ahead of talks with Palestinian leaders.

Israel said on Tuesday it would allow up to 600 members of a Palestinian security force trained in Jordan under a U.S. program to be deployed in a West Bank city once considered a hotbed of militant activity.

Iraq

The most senior US general in Iraq has said he has evidence that Iran was behind Sunday’s bombardment of Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone.

As Iraq’s military gets back to its feet, it has received armored vehicles, up-armored Hummers, and assorted weapons, vehicles, and aircraft. The initial priority on armed combat forces that could be supported by American combat logistics has started to give way to a buildup of Iraq’s own logistics and maintenance capabilities.

Iraq’s U.S.-backed Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki vowed on Thursday that security forces would battle Shi’ite militia in Basra “to the end”, despite huge demonstrations to demand his resignation.

American military forces conducted air strikes on targets in Basra late Thursday, joining for the first time an onslaught by Iraqi security forces intended to oust Shiite militias in the southern port city.

SOUTH ASIA

Afghanistan

France will send more troops to Afghanistan to help fight the Taliban and al Qaeda if certain conditions are met by NATO, President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday.

EAST ASIA

China

China demanded an investigation Wednesday after the U.S. military’s admission the day before that it had accidentally shipped intercontinental ballistic missile parts to Taiwan.

Britain’s GCHQ, the government communications agency that electronically monitors half the world from space, has confirmed the claim by the Dalai Lama that agents of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the PLA, posing as monks, triggered the riots that have left hundreds of Tibetans dead or injured.

Evidence is accumulating that the Chinese regime orchestrated violence in Lhasa in order to discredit the peaceful protests of Buddhist monks.

The website “www.anti-CNN.com ” reflects public condemnation of some Western media’s “distorted” reports of the riots in Lhasa, capital of China’s Tibet Autonomous Region, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said on Thursday.

Pakistan

The United States has escalated air strikes against al-Qaeda fighters operating in Pakistan’s tribal areas fearing that support from Islamabad may slip away.

AFRICA

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe, facing the toughest election battle of his 28 years in power, handed out hundreds of cars to doctors on Thursday in what opponents say is a vote buying campaign.

Marsha Reid is a contributor to Geopoliticalmonitor.com