China talks tough with Dalai Lama

SYDNEY, LONDON, TAIPEI JOIN TIBETAN FIGHT

China said it would “resolutely strike” against the “Dalai Lama clique’s separatist activities” as protesters planned demonstrations in major world cities yesterday to mark the anniversary of a Tibetan uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.

The sensitive anniversary coincided with the yearly news conference of Tibet’s delegation to China’s annual meeting of parliament, underway in Beijing.

Che Dalha, Tibet’s governor, said the government would “hold a clear-cut stand against separatism, resolutely strike against the Dalai clique’s damaging and separatist activities”.

“The most important task is to protect our motherland’s frontier regions, build up our homes, absolutely not allow any groups to separate even one inch of our land from the motherland,” said Tashi Yangjen, a delegate representing the tiny Lhoba ethnic minority group of southeast Tibet.

Chinese troops marched in and took control of Tibet in 1950, in what Beijing calls a “peaceful liberation”.

China views the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s Buddhist spiritual leader who fled into exile in India after the failed uprising, as a dangerous separatist.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate says he only wants genuine autonomy for Tibet.

International human rights groups and exiles routinely condemn what they say is China’s oppressive rule in Tibet.

In Sydney, 200 protesters marched to the Chinese consulate yesterday to protest against the lack of human rights in Tibet, with larger demonstrations planned in cities including Taipei and London. – Reuters