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BEIJING: An envoy of the Dalai Lama urged Beijing to cancel
“provocative” plans to run the Olympic torch relay through
Tibet, but China promptly dismissed his call Friday as a bid to
sabotage the Games.
Lodi Gyari, an envoy of exiled Tibetan spiritual
leader the Dalai Lama, told a US Congressional hearing on Thursday
that Beijing’s communist leaders should abandon plans to bring the
Olympic flame through Tibet.
A report said China would begin putting people
on trial this month over the unrest, the biggest challenge to
Chinese rule in Tibet in decades, as Beijing has moved to ensure no
repeat before the August Olympics.
“I really think the idea of taking the torch
through Tibet should be cancelled precisely because that would be
very deliberately provocative and very insulting after what has
happened,” he said.
The torch will pass through Tibet in May to go
up Mount Everest and then again when it goes through Lhasa, the
Tibetan capital, in June. Chinese officials have already pledged
tight security for the Tibetan legs.
Gyari said that if the Chinese authorities went
ahead with the torch run in Tibet, it would “bring more adverse
publicity” to the Olympic Games in Beijing, which China wants to
be a national showcase of its rising standing.
“The Olympic flame is the highest symbol of
the Olympic spirit. It represents peace, friendship and progress,”
Zhu Jing, a spokeswoman for the Beijing Olympic organizing
committee, said Friday in response to Gyari.
“The fact that the ‘Dalai clique’ calls
for a cancellation of the torch relay has exposed the reality of its
attempt to sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games,” she told AFP.
China frequently refers to the so-called
“Dalai clique” but has refused to provide any specific details
about its membership or structure.
Protests in the Lhasa claimed their first lives
on March 14, amid fierce anti-Chinese demonstrations to mark the
anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising.
The unrest quickly spread to neighboring Chinese
provinces populated by Tibetans.
Beijing says rioters killed 18 civilians and two
police officers. Exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from
the Chinese crackdown at 135 to 140 Tibetans, with another 1,000
injured and many detained.
With access to Tibet still denied (foreign
tourists would not be allowed in until May and journalists are
barred), it remains extremely difficult to verify information about
the situation in the isolated region.
The Tibet Commerce newspaper said late Thursday
that more than 1,000 people had either been caught by police or
turned themselves in.
Police had confiscated a total of 185 guns and
rifles in raids on monks’ dormitories near Buddhist temples in
Tibet as well as the western provinces of Sichuan, Qinghai and Gansu,
the Beijing News reported.
-- AFP
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