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BEIJING: China has insisted that the Dalai Lama must not do anything
to tarnish the Beijing Olympics if talks between the two sides are
to continue, state media reported on Monday.
Tibet’s “illegal” government-in-exile also
has no role in the dialogue, the Xinhua news agency quoted a senior
Communist Party official involved in the process as saying.
“We do not recognize this ‘Tibetan exiled
government,’” Xinhua quoted the unnamed spokesman of the
party’s United Front Work Department as saying in an exclusive
interview.
“The central government will never hold
consultations with such an illegal organization.”
The first condition mentioned in the Xinhua
dispatch centered on next month’s Olympics, following deadly
unrest in Tibet this year that China has accused the Dalai Lama of
fomenting to embarrass the government ahead of the Games.
“The Dalai Lama should openly and explicitly
promise and prove in his actions not to support activities to
disturb the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games,” the official was
quoted as saying.
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly denied
orchestrating the unrest and voiced support for China’s hosting of
the Olympics.
The official also insisted the dialogue only
concerned the “personal future” of the Dalai Lama, in an
apparent reference to negotiations on whether the Tibetan spiritual
leader could one day return to China and eventually Tibet.
This has been China’s central position since
the talks started in 2002, although the Tibetan side has pushed for
the dialogue to cover a broader range of issues, such as more
meaningful autonomy for the Himalayan region.
The top representative of the Dalai Lama said
Saturday he was “disappointed” with the latest round of talks,
which were held in Beijing last week.
The talks stalled last year but China agreed to
restart them in early May amid world criticism over China’s
massive crackdown on the protests that began in the Tibetan capital
of Lhasa in March against Chinese rule.
China has ruled Tibet since 1951, a year after
sending troops in to “liberate” the region.
The Dalai Lama fled his homeland in 1959
following a failed uprising and has since been based alongside the
government-in-exile in Dharamshala, India.
-- AFP
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