(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-20 08:38

ROME -- Cewang Rigzin, president of the separatist "Tibetan Youth Congress" (TYC), has preached seeking "Tibet independence" through suicide attacks.

"Maybe it is time now for the 'Tibetan People's Uprising Movement' to use the means of suicide attacks to carry on the struggle," Cewang Rigzin said in an interview with Italy's Corriere della Sera newspaper recently.

It was time to change the "tactics of struggle" as "there are opportunities for the Chinese to take advantage of the line of non-violence," the TYC head said in the interview made in Dharamsala, India.

The TYC would seek to achieve "Tibet independence" as soon as possible at any cost, and the means of suicide attacks could be used, he said.

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Cewang Rigzin also clamored for a worldwide boycott of the Beijing Olympic Games.

The remarks of the TYC head have drawn strong criticism from many Italians and overseas Chinese in Italy.

It's "absurd and wrong" to use suicide attacks to solve "the Tibet issue," said Paullo Salom, the Corriere della Sera journalist in charge of reports on China and East Asia.

The remarks of Cewang Rigzin revealed the "vicious intention" of the Dalai Lama and his followers to split China by carrying out violent attacks "under the cover of non-violence," said Liao Zonglin, chairman of the Federation of Overseas Chinese Associations in Rome.

It's an "extremely horrible" act of terrorism to seek "Tibet independence" through violence, which is bound to be condemned by the peace-loving people, said Vittorio Mancini, chairman of the Italy-China Friendship Association.

It's a mistake to politicize the Olympic Games, he added.

The TYC, a hardline organization affiliated to the Dalai Lama supporters, was established in 1970 in India, upon the order of the Dalai Lama.

Shortly after its establishment, some TYC members declared that they would "use violence forever" to seek "Tibet independence."