China says deported Tibetan was from radical group

BEIJING (Reuters) - China on Thursday defended its decision to deport a Tibetan British woman this week, saying she was a key member of a pro-Tibet independence group and had engaged in unspecified illegal activities in the country.

Dechen Pemba, 30, a British national, was escorted onto a plane to London after being interrogated by Chinese security officials in Beijing on Tuesday.

But she told Reuters by telephone from London that she was innocent and said the deportation was by a paranoid government less than one month before the August 8-24 Beijing Olympics start.

She said she had been barred from visiting China for five years.

Asked to comment at a regular news conference on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said the move was made according to law.

"She has introduced a lot of things to you, but she probably has missed the most important fact: she is a key member of the ethnic separatist group Tibetan Youth Congress," Liu said. China has labeled the group a terrorist organization.

"She should have also told you that during the investigation she confessed that she had engaged in activities violating Chinese laws during her stay in China," Liu said, referring to reporters to "relevant departments" when asked to elaborate.

Liu said Dechen Pemba's deportation had no "necessary connections with the overall security measures for the Olympics".

Dechen Pemba denied Liu's allegations.

"I just think it's completely ridiculous," she told Reuters. "I've never had close associations with the Tibetan Youth Congress.

"I think that generally they are paranoid in the run-up to the Olympics," she added. "I don't really know what they imagined or believed I could do. I can imagine being a Tibetan from abroad made them nervous."

Overseas Tibetan advocacy groups said residents of Beijing were targets simply because of their ethnicity.

"There's an unprecedented security sweep at the moment in Beijing due to the Olympics," said Kate Saunders, of the International Campaign for Tibet. "It seems as though almost every Tibetan in Beijing is potentially under suspicion."

Dechen Pemba worked for the group in Germany several years ago, but is not currently affiliated with it, Saunders said.

A deadly anti-government riot erupted in Tibet's regional capital Lhasa in March, sparking protests in other Tibetan-populated areas in China.

The wave of unrest triggered a government crackdown that in turn led to protests that dogged the international leg of the Olympic torch relay.

China has accused Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his followers of plotting the riots to sabotage the Beijing Games. The Dalai Lama has denied the charge.

In the latest talks with the monk's envoys in Beijing this month, Chinese officials made explicit demands that the Dalai Lama restrain "violent criminal" activities of the Tibetan Youth Congress.

Tibetan exiles, who fled their Himalayan homeland with the Dalai Lama after an abortive uprising against Chinese Communist rule in 1959, argue the group is not a militant organization.

(Reporting by Lindsay Beck, Guo Shipeng and Ben Blanchard)