Beijing, March 18
Buckling under intense international pressure, China today said it was still open to talks with the Dalai Lama whom it accused of “masterminding” the pro-independence protests in Lhasa and elsewhere as Tibet remained virtually cut off after Friday’s widespread violence.
“The door of dialogue is open for the Dalai Lama so long as he gives up the position for ‘Tibet Independence’ and so long as he recognises Tibet and Taiwan as inalienable parts of the Chinese territory,” Premier Wen Jiabao said at a press conference here after being elected for a second term.
He was asked if China would invite the Dalai Lama for direct talks on the vexed Tibet issue.
“We mean what we say. We need to watch what the Dalai Lama does. It is up to him,” said Wen who is the first top Chinese leader to speak on the most violent protests against the Chinese rule in two decades that erupted
in Lhasa on Friday, leaving at least 13 persons dead.
Wen said Dalai Lama’s claims that he pursues peaceful dialogue and not ‘Tibet independence’ were “nothing but lies”.
“We have ample facts and plenty of evidence to prove that the riots in Lhasa were organised, pre-meditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique,” Wen said, stepping up the offensive against the 1989 Nobel laureate.
Referring to the “appalling incidents” in Lhasa and other parts of the world, including the attacks on Chinese embassies and consulates, Wen asked, “don’t these activities have anything to do with the Dalai Lama.”
“We should not only listen to what he says but also watch what he does.” He dismissed as “lies” the charge of “cultural genocide” in Tibet levelled by the Dalai Lama who had accused Beijing of unleashing a “rule of terror”. “The lies cannot cover the iron clad facts.”
“We have really urged the Chinese over several years to find a way to talk with the Dalai Lama, who is a figure of authority, who is not a separatist, and to find a way to engage him and bring his moral weight to a more sustainable and better solution of the Tibet issue,” US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday.
Meanwhile, the exiled spiritual leader denied the charge and vowed to stand down if violence spiralled out of control. “If things become out of control then my only option is to completely resign,” the Nobel peace laureate told a news conference in Dharamsala, northern India.
The Tibetan government-in-exile said it now believed 99 persons had died in clashes between Chinese authorities and Tibetans over the past week, including 19 on Tuesday alone.
Premier Wen Jiabao, however, defended the security crackdown on Lhasa and neighbouring Chinese provinces where rioting by Tibetans had erupted over the weekend.
Wen said the protesters “wanted to incite the sabotage of the Olympic Games in order to achieve their unspeakable goal.” Western nations have called on Beijing to exercise restraint, but the International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge told Reuters in Trinidad on Monday that there had been “absolutely no calls” from governments for a Beijing Games boycott.
Other major countries like Germany, Australia, France and UK have also made similar noises but have ruled out boycotting the Beijing Olympics.
The Dalai Lama consistently says he is not seeking independence for Tibet and instead wants autonomy within China, which sent troops into the region in 1950.
An exiled Tibetan rights group said today that 30 Tibetan protesters were arrested after staging a demonstration near Lhasa. A dozen Buddhist monks from the Dinka Monastery in Duilong Deqing County (Toelung Dechen in Tibetan) near Lhasa, held the protest yesterday and were joined by local residents, the Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said on its website (www.tchrd.org), citing “numerous sources and witnesses”.
Wen said the Chinese government is fully capable of maintaining stability and order in Tibet, which remained locked out after deadline for Tibetan protesters to surrender ended last night.
Beijing has banned entry of tourists, especially foreigners, and mediapersons into the restive region and was reportedly rounding up the agitators involved the violent protests coinciding with the anniversary of the 1959 failed uprising.
Protests, meanwhile, continued in several parts of the world for the sixth day today. As many as 100 protesters burnt Chinese flags outside the Chinese consulate. The weeping Tibetan immigrants waved flags and photos of the Dalai Lama.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon has urged Beijing to show restraint in handling the protests and called on all sides avoid further confrontation.
— PTI/Reuters
