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Dalai Lama urges China to address
immolations
AFP, TOKYO
Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader
the Dalai Lama speaks during a press conference in Yaese, Japan, yesterday.
Photo: AFP
The Dalai Lama yesterday said that China
is more interested in criticizing him than in finding the reason behind a spate
of Tibetan self-immolations threatening to mar the Chinese Communist Partyˇ¦s (CCP)
leadership change.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader told reporters in Japan that Beijing is not
looking ˇ§seriouslyˇ¨ at the protests taking place across the country during the
highly choreographed meeting.
ˇ§The Chinese government should investigate the cause [of the incidents]. China
does not look into it seriously and tries to end [the incidents] only by
criticizing me,ˇ¨ he said, according to a Kyodo News report.
The comments come after seven people set themselves on fire within one week and
are thought to be the Dalai Lamaˇ¦s first on the issue since the CCPˇ¦s 18th Party
Congress began in Beijing on Thursday last week.
On Saturday, an 18-year-old Tibetan died after setting himself ablaze in front
of a monastery in Gansu Province, Xinhua news agency said.
Sixty-nine people have set themselves on fire to protest Chinese rule of Tibet
since 2009, of whom 54 have died, the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile
said before the latest incident.
The immolations have gained pace in recent months and particularly last week as
the CCP opened its sensitive congress to pass the baton of power to the next
generation of party apparatchiks.
The party has sought to project an image of national unity during the
stage-managed gathering amid unrest in minority areas.
The escalating protests have been aimed at undercutting the facade, Tibetan
government-in-exile representatives said in India.
On the sidelines of the congress on Friday, officials from the Tibetan Communist
Party angrily denounced the Dalai Lama and overseas Tibetan ˇ§separatistsˇ¨ for
orchestrating the immolations to breed unrest.
ˇ§The Dalai Lama clique and overseas Tibetan separatists have been sacrificing
other peopleˇ¦s lives for their own secret political aims,ˇ¨ said Losang Gyaltsen,
vice chairman of the Tibetan regionˇ¦s government.
The Dalai Lama is nearing the end of a 12-day visit to Japan, a country to which
he is a regular visitor and where he has a sizeable following.
He was in Okinawa yesterday, but is due to return to Tokyo today, where he is
expected to speak to a cross-party group of parliamentarians. More than 100
Japanese lawmakers are expected to attend the speech, said Hakubun Shimomura,
the secretary of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, who will jointly host
the meeting, adding that politicians are to establish a Tibet support group.
Tokyo formally recognizes Beijingˇ¦s position that Tibet is a part of China and
in a nod to this, the government bars its officials from meeting the Dalai Lama
during his frequent visits.
China criticizes Japan for allowing the visits, which it says give the
saffron-robed monk a platform for views it considers unacceptable.
During a trip to Japan in November last year, the 77-year-old said Tibetans
faced ˇ§cultural genocideˇ¨ under Beijingˇ¦s hardline rule, which he blamed for a
wave of self-immolations at the time.
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