Published by: World Tibet Network News Sunday - September 14, 1997

BEIJING, Sept 14 (AFP) - Almost 30,000 Tibetan cadres and communist militants have received political training including "anti-separatist" courses in the last five years, said the regional press received in Beijing on Sunday.

The special education was taught to a total of 28,253 people composed of 2,228 city officials, 4,801 village heads and 21,224 party militants, the Tibet Daily said, discussing the activities of the communist party school ahead of the 15th Congress which opened Friday in Beijing.

Communist party members were also educated in "Marxist-Leninism, Mao Zedong thought and notably in the theory of socialism with Chinese characteristics by Deng Xiaoping," the newspaper said.

They also received "religious education", as well as a "patriotic education focused on safeguarding national and ethnic unity, and fighting anti-separatism," said the newspaper report dated September 5.

Top Tibetan officers previously criticized the weakness of local leaders in the fight against followers of the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of the Tibetans whom Beijing accuses of being the head of a "splittist clique."