[lg policy] China's 'ruthless' Tibet policy to blame for monk deaths, says Dalai Lama

[Harold Schiffman]

China's 'ruthless' Tibet policy to blame for monk deaths, says Dalai Lama

Exiled spiritual leader calls on Beijing to halt repressive policies
that have led to spate of recent self-immolation protests

    guardian.co.uk, Saturday 29 October 2011 06.18 EDT



Dalai Lama says China's treatment of Tibetans is 'illogical'.

The Dalai Lama has blamed China's "ruthless and illogical" policy
towards Tibet for the recent deaths of monks who set themselves on
fire in protest against Beijing's rule. The exiled Tibetan spiritual
leader also called on the Chinese government to change its repressive
policies in Tibet, which include a crackdown on monasteries and the
Tibetan language.

"For their own interest, not just the interest for certain sort of
problem here and there, but for the whole country's sort of future,
they have to act [with a] realistic sort of policy," said the Nobel
Peace Prize laureate.

At least nine Tibetan clerics or former clerics have self-immolated in
south-western China over seven months in protest against Chinese rule.
Five of them have died of their injuries. Earlier this month a nun
became the most recent casualty and the first woman to die.

The Tibetan government-in-exile, which has accused China of an
official policy of cracking down on religious institutions, called for
the international community to urge Beijing to open a dialogue on its
policies in Tibet and traditionally Tibetan regions of western China.

"Actually, the local leader must look what's the real causes of
death," the Dalai Lama told reporters in Tokyo during his visit to
victims of the tsunami that stuck Japan in March. "It's their own sort
of wrong policy, ruthless policy, illogical policy."

Beijing accuses the Dalai Lama and his supporters of encouraging the
immolations. The practice was unknown among clerics until two years
ago, when one monk burnt himself to death in Sichuan province's Aba
county, the predominantly Tibetan area in which most of the deaths
have taken place.

Amnesty International has said the spate of self-immolations
"indicates a new level of desperation" on the part of Tibetans.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/29/dalai-lama-tibet-china-protests?newsfeed=true

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