Chinese police on Tuesday said Tibetans were planning suicide attacks as part of a campaign ahead of the Beijing Olympics to push for independence in their homeland. “To our knowledge, the next plan of the Tibetan independence forces is to organize suicide squads to launch violent attacks,” Chinese public security ministry spokesman Wu Heping said. “They fear neither bloodshed nor sacrifice.” Wu linked the alleged suicide attack plans to exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, and said explosives had been found in Buddhist monasteries in Tibet. Wu's assertions were among the most dramatic by China in its propaganda offensive against the Dalai Lama, whom it accuses of masterminding the unrest that broke out last month in Tibet against Chinese rule of the Himalayan region. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, has repeatedly denied orchestrating the unrest, spoken out against the protests when they turned violent, and denied he wants independence for his homeland. Wu said the anti-China riots that began in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, and spread through Tibetan-populated regions in nearby provinces, were organized by a group called the “Tibetan People's Uprising Movement.” He said the movement was organized by the exiled Tibetan government and was seeking to use the period up to the August Beijing Olympics to pressure China's government. __
