Five organizations under the "Tibetan government-in-exile", the "TYC", the "Tibetan Women's Association (TWA)," "Students for a Free Tibet (SFT)," the "National Democratic Party of Tibet (NDPT)" and the "Gu-Chu-Sum Movement of Tibet (GCSMT)" announced the formal start of the "Tibetan people's uprising" on Jan. 4 this year and founded a temporary preparation office in charge of coordination and financing, headed by Cewang Rigzin, according to the report.

They claimed that the movement would be a "turning point in the history of Tibetans' struggle for freedom," the article said.

"They divided the movement into four stages," it said. The first was to recruit participants and promote the ideas of the movement. The second stage, or the action step, started on March 10, followed by the third, which was to organize demonstrations across the world. The last one was to launch actions in the regions inhabited by Tibetan people inside China. (More)

FOREIGN ASSISTANCE

From Feb. 15 to 17, the five organizations launched training programs for people in charge of the movement activities in Dharamsala in northwest India, where the "Tibetan government-in-exile" was located.

Four days later, in the same place, they started a six-day campaign to recruit participants.

The "GCSMT" obtained financial assistance from the U.S.-based National Endowment for Democracy (NED) on Feb. 27 from a fund "for activists to deal with danger."

According to an NED report, the foundation granted 1.36 million U.S. dollars to the Dalai Lama's backers between 2002 and 2006. In 2006 alone, it gave 85,000 U.S. dollars to organizations such as the "TWA" and "GCSMT."

The Dalai clique questioned about 300 Tibetans who were smuggled across the border from China during February in a bid to collect information for planned attacks on border points or infiltration into China, the article said.

On March 10, after careful selection, 101 hard-core members set off from Dharamsala to unleash the movement.

HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF

March 10 is the anniversary of the so-called "Tibet uprising" in 1959. On that date, 49 years ago, Lhasa saw a bloody riot initiated by the Dalai Lama's backers. Rioters killed Pagbalha Soinam Gyamco, a senior lama and a member of the preparation committee of the Tibet Autonomous Region, tied his body to a horse and dragged it for two kilometers.