One of China's most popular newspapers is refuting the Dalai Lama vicious blemish on the People's Liberation Army (PLA) alleging groups of servicemen were ordered to dress in clergy robes and act as rioters on March 14 in Lhasa, Tibet.

The paper lambasted against the Dalai Lama for his quotes in the on-line edition of the India-based Tribune on rumors that hundreds of PLA soldiers were dressing like Tibetan monks and acting as rioters in the unrest that hit the Tibetan capital.

The newspaper, affiliated to the flagship outlet People's Daily, quoted a PLA officer-turned scholar as saying, the rumor attributed by the Dalai Lama was an open contempt of common sense and the Dalai clique assumed that the rest of the world was prone to be duped.

Although a few Western media made unbalanced reports on the rumor relayed by the Dalai Lama at a press briefing on March 29 in New Dehli, most mainstream media published the news on the rumor as well as the Chinese official rebuttal, the Global Times reported.

An unnamed scholar, described as one who used to serve the PLA, said the Dalai Lama's quoting of the unverifiable rumor played just as a "pale justification" of the evil nature of violence, the newspaper said.

"The military men's dignified style, which has been cultivated in long strict training, could not be easily covered," the scholar refuted. "How can those sloppy hooligans be impersonated by honorable army soldiers?"

Ye Xiaowen, China Association for Preservation and Development of Tibetan Culture (CAPDTC) vice chairman, said the Dalai Lama recently dished out many lies.

He charged the Dalai Lama with hypocrisy on his self-contradictory comments that he has no intention on separating Tibet from China. He also insisted on Tibet's de facto "independence" half century ago, the newspaper said.

As the truth behind the Lhasa riots becomes clearer, the newspaper said, the Western media cannot ignore the compelling opinions on knowing the unbiased and objective stories of the riots and their ripple effect.

A female reader using the pseudonym Junejune, who has a Chinese origin, wrote to the editors of a German publication, "Why did you always accuse (the Chinese government) of a crackdown? Did you ask yourself -- who attacked first? Please use your common sense to make an easy judgement. Could police stand idly by as they see crime on streets?"

A German reader wrote he was fed up with the tilted and biased reports on incidents in Lhasa. "We need to know the whole picture," he wrote.

An Austrian newspaper also warned its peers in the Western press of verifying information from the Tibetan government in exile or advocacy groups.

Editor: Yan