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Reuters
Wednesday July 30 2008

BEIJING, July 30 (Reuters) - Chinese police guarding restive Tibet have been mobilised to ensure "absolute security" there during the Beijing Olympics and are looking for stronger international support, an official newspaper said on Wednesday.

China says followers of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, fomented riots and protests across the mountain region in March in a bid to derail the Games which start next Friday.

The Dalai Lama has rejected the accusation, but since that unrest security forces in Tibet and neighbouring provinces have mounted a sweeping crackdown on challenges to Chinese control.

The official Tibet Daily announced even tougher policing during the Games when any shows of defiance by pro-Tibet independence groups could embarrass the government before a worldwide audience.

In an effort to ensure "absolute security without a single lapse", police will redouble guards at major buildings, strengthen border controls and seek to expand international efforts to stifle anti-China activists, the report said. It appeared on an official Tibet Web site (www.chinatibetnews.com).
"We must further improve anti-terror plans, and take swift measures against all forms of violence and terrorist activities," said the report, citing a meeting of the regional public security office on Sunday.

The report suggested Chinese police will be looking for stronger international help, possibly with countries near Tibet.

They will seek to "strengthen and improve forms of cooperation in international policing, and expand the region and scope of policing cooperation...resolutely smashing the separatist activities of the Dalai clique," the report said.

China has pressed India and Nepal, where many thousands of exiled Tibetans live, to do more against pro-Tibet independence groups in their countries.

Chinese officials have said terror groups demanding independence for Tibet and for Muslim Uighur people of far west Xinjiang are key security threats in the Games.

Many Tibetan and Uighur activists say Beijing grossly exaggerates the threat from violence to justify repression of peaceful protest.
But even small, non-violent protests by Tibetans could upset the Chinese government, which has choreographed the Games as a show of patriotic unity.

Police in Tibet have had holidays cancelled until the Games end, the report said.

Xinjiang, too, is under unusually strict security. The 4,299 public buses in the regional capital Urumqi would carry "security inspectors" up to and during the Games, the Legal Daily reported. (Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Nick Macfie) (chris.buckley@reuters.com; +86 13501014479)