Dalai Lama accuses Chinese of creating hell on earth in Tibet

Published on Tuesday 10 March 2009 20:48

THE Dalai Lama said yesterday that more and more Chinese were beginning to see a problem with Beijing's rule over Tibet, lamenting how the homeland he fled 50 years ago had become a "hell on earth".

Speaking before some 10,000 Tibetans from around the world, the 73-year-old slammed China for its series of violent, repressive campaigns in Tibet since 1959.

"These thrust Tibetans into such depths of suffering and hardship that they literally experienced hell on earth," he said from the main Buddhist temple in Dharmsala, the north Indian hill town where Tibet's government-in-exile is based.

"The immediate result of these campaigns was the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Tibetans."

China had tightened security across ethnic Tibetan areas, aiming to head off potential unrest on yesterday's sensitive 50th anniversary of the failed uprising that prompted the Dalai Lama's flight into exile in India.

Monks, who have initiated many Tibetan protests in recent years, said they were under close surveillance and riot police blocked roads and turned away foreign journalists from parts of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces.

The Dalai Lama told a news conference that the voices of support for Tibet within China was rising steadily.

"More and more Chinese (are] now starting to acknowledge there is problem there," he said. "In fact, quite a number of Chinese high officials, (their] family members, (are] showing interest in Tibetan Buddhism."

Earlier, about 20 young men and women, dressed mostly in black Tibetan dress to mourn victims of the crackdown, came in before his speech, playing drums and bagpipes and singing "Rise up, rise up".

The Tibetan anthem was also played and a minute's silence was observed in the memory of victims of last year's Chinese crackdown in Tibet.

The Dalai Lama mourned what he called the suffering and destruction wrought by Chinese Communist policies.

Many were seen crying as he said: "Even today, Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear.

"Today, the religion, culture, language and identity, which successive generations of Tibetans have considered more precious than their lives, are nearing extinction. In short, the Tibetan people are regarded like criminals, deserving to be put to death."

Shortly after the speech, thousands of Tibetans, many of them children, marched through the narrow streets of Dharmsala carrying "Free Tibet" posters and protesting against the Chinese security clampdown.

China's Communist Party mouthpiece, the People's Daily, carried an editorial yesterday extolling Tibet's development in the past 50 years and slamming what it called the misery of the old feudal society, in which it claimed people fought dogs for food and illiteracy was widespread.

"Nobody hopes to go backwards in history, and only a few slave owners dwell on the life that once was," it said.

The Dalai Lama used yesterday's anniversary to renew a demand for "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet. But Beijing says such calls are tantamount to a demand for independence.