Dalai Lama Says Tibetans Suffered ‘Hell on Earth’
By James Rupert
March 10 (Bloomberg)
-- The Dalai Lama said Tibetans have suffered “hell on earth” under Chinese rule and demanded autonomy for the region, as China heightened security for today’s 50th anniversary of the uprising that spurred his exile.
China’s “repressive and violent campaigns” have led to the deaths of “hundreds of thousands” of Tibetans, the Himalayan region’s spiritual leader told supporters in a speech that also urged the peoples of Tibet and China to co-exist in friendship. “These 50 years have brought untold suffering and destruction to the people of Tibet,” he said, according to a text of the speech published on his Web site.
China, which annexed Tibet in 1951, has deployed extra armed police and reinforced border patrols ahead of today’s anniversary, according to state-run media. Tibetan exile groups say security forces have closed Tibetan regions to foreigners, expelled journalists, set up roadblocks and shut down mobile telephone and Internet connections in some areas.
“The Dalai clique confuses right and wrong and spreads rumors,” Ma Zhaoxu, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said at a regular press briefing in Beijing today.
Last March, the largest Tibetan uprising in almost two decades broke out after Chinese security forces suppressed a protest by monks in Lhasa. At least 19 people were killed in ethnic rioting in the city, most of them ethnic Han Chinese, according to the government in Beijing.
The nation must “build up a Great Wall in our fight against separatism and safeguard the unity of the motherland,” Chinese President Hu Jintao, who accuses the Dalai Lama of fomenting unrest in Tibet, said yesterday.
By James Rupert
March 10 (Bloomberg)
-- The Dalai Lama said Tibetans have suffered “hell on earth” under Chinese rule and demanded autonomy for the region, as China heightened security for today’s 50th anniversary of the uprising that spurred his exile.
China’s “repressive and violent campaigns” have led to the deaths of “hundreds of thousands” of Tibetans, the Himalayan region’s spiritual leader told supporters in a speech that also urged the peoples of Tibet and China to co-exist in friendship. “These 50 years have brought untold suffering and destruction to the people of Tibet,” he said, according to a text of the speech published on his Web site.
China, which annexed Tibet in 1951, has deployed extra armed police and reinforced border patrols ahead of today’s anniversary, according to state-run media. Tibetan exile groups say security forces have closed Tibetan regions to foreigners, expelled journalists, set up roadblocks and shut down mobile telephone and Internet connections in some areas.
“The Dalai clique confuses right and wrong and spreads rumors,” Ma Zhaoxu, a spokesman for China’s foreign ministry said at a regular press briefing in Beijing today.
Last March, the largest Tibetan uprising in almost two decades broke out after Chinese security forces suppressed a protest by monks in Lhasa. At least 19 people were killed in ethnic rioting in the city, most of them ethnic Han Chinese, according to the government in Beijing.
The nation must “build up a Great Wall in our fight against separatism and safeguard the unity of the motherland,” Chinese President Hu Jintao, who accuses the Dalai Lama of fomenting unrest in Tibet, said yesterday.
