Tibetan separatists and members of so-called international "Tibet support" groups have staged violent attacks on 18 Chinese diplomatic missions since March 10. Even the United Nations' office in the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu was targeted.

The attacks have seriously disturbed the normal work and daily life of the Chinese missions, international organizations and local residents. They constitute a gross violation of international law and lay bare these separatists' nature of resorting to violence and undermining peace.

Worse still, the separatists who seek "Tibet independence" attempted to disrupt and sabotage the torch relay of the Beijing Olympics outside China in defiance of the laws of the participating countries.

Such acts have tarnished and constituted an open display of contempt for the International Olympic Charter and the Olympic spirit. They posed a challenge to people who love peace and the Olympic movement the world over.

The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, which came into force in 1964, grants inviolability to embassy premises and the personal safety and private dwellings of diplomatic representatives.

The Vienna Convention on Consular Relations, which took effect in 1967, also guarantees the protection of consular premises.

The separatists' violent actions, in total disregard of international law and the laws of individual countries, only serves to show that the repeated claims of "peaceful demonstrations" by the Dalai Lama and his followers are nothing but false.

Nevertheless, the unlawful acts of the separatists should only help the international community see through their true nature and have already been condemned by the general public in many countries.

Lawbreakers are bound to be punished by law. The judicial authorities of different countries have started to deal with those who stirred up violence and clashed with police in accordance with the norms of international law and their national laws.

As a Chinese saying goes, those who commit unrighteous acts bring ruin on themselves.

(Xinhua News Agency April 5, 2008)