Former vice-chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) Standing Committee Ragdi said on Wednesday morning that the distorted news coverage on the recent Lhasa riot is "outrageous and ill motivated".

"Some Western media purposely distorted the facts and viciously described severe crime as peaceful demonstration, so as to slander our legitimate efforts to keeping social stability as violent crackdown," the Tibet-born Ragdi said.

"It's outrageous that the irresponsible news coverage of some Western media even failed to discover facts of the riot," Ragdi told a meeting of the Counseling Committee on Development of the Tibet Autonomous Region.

"Without knowing even the basic facts about the crime made by rioters," Ragdi said, "some Western media posed as hypocrites to clamorously advise the Chinese government not suppress peaceful demonstration and respect human rights."

"No government in the world would sit idly by as such a severe riot occurs, no government would do nothing to prevent further harmful activities, no government would allow the lawless to make terrors and destabilize social security," Ragdi said.

"The responsibilities of the government and the law enforcement are to protect safety of people's life and their property, and a stable and harmonious society," Ragdi said. "We'd never shy away from such responsibilities."

"The cut-throat combat between us and the Dalai clique with its antagonistic supporters in some Western countries is a significant political competition for choice on separation on unification," Ragdi said.

"The severe violence and riot which occurred in Lhasa recently is neither a social security problem, nor an ethnic problem," he said.

"It has nothing to do with democracy," Ragdi, also honorary chairman of the Counseling Committee on Development of the Tibet Autonomous Region, told a meeting of the counseling committee.

Ragdi said the plot of a tiny handful of people to sabotage the stability and harmony of Tibet will not gain the Tibetan people's support and is doomed to failure.

The riot erupted in Lhasa on the afternoon of last Friday. Lawless people set fires at more than 300 locations and attacked schools, banks, hospitals, shops, government offices, utilities and state media offices. Thirteen civilians were burnt or stabbed to death in the incident.

"The Communist Party of China committee and government of Tibet have taken effective measures and the situation in Lhasa has been basically put under control," Ragdi said.

"We are fully capable of maintaining the social stability of Tibet and ensuring the safety of lives and property of people of all ethnic groups in the region," he added.

(Xinhua News Agency, March 19, 2008)??