The Hindu : Front Page : Tibet protests incited by Dalai Lama: Wen

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Mar 19, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Tibet protests incited by Dalai Lama: Wen

Pallavi Aiyar

Appreciates stance of the Indian government

Beijing: Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Tuesday appreciated the “position and stance of the Indian government in handling the activities of the Dalai Lama clique,” but said the Tibet issue remained a “sensitive one in China’s relationship with India.”

Mr. Wen was speaking at his annual press conference at the close of this year’s two-week parliamentary session.

He went on to add that a “broad agreement” had been reached on the Tibet issue between China and the former Indian Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, as well as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. He said he hoped that the “Indian government would follow the agreement reached by the leaders of the two countries.”

During Mr. Vajpayee’s 2003 visit to Beijing, the Indian side clearly stated that it held the Tibet Autonomous Region part of the territory of the People’s Republic of China.

Mr. Wen also addressed the thorny boundary dispute between the two neighbours calling it a “complicated” question, left over from history. While warning that no overnight solutions were possible, he said that as long as both sides displayed sincerity and approached the issue on the “basis of equality, mutual benefit and mutual accommodation,” he believed “new progress will be made in the negotiations.”

Regarding the protests in Tibet, Mr. Wen reiterated China’s official claim that they were orchestrated by the Dalai Lama.

“There is ample fact and plenty of evidence proving this incident was organised, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique,” he said, accusing the Dalai Lama of “hypocrisy.”

“This [the protests] has all the more revealed that the consistent claims by the Dalai clique — that they pursue not independence but peaceful dialogue — are nothing but lies,” the Premier said.

While the Dalai Lama continued to say that he wanted autonomy for Tibet within China rather than outright independence, the spiritual leader had called for an investigation into what he called “cultural genocide in Tibet.” Mr. Wen rejected the charge as a lie. He said he would consider organising a trip for foreign journalists to Lhasa so that they could survey the situation firsthand.

On Taiwan, where elections are scheduled for the next weekend, the Premier offered to resume talks with the self-ruled island, although he warned that passage of a contentious referendum on U.N. membership would disrupt ties.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page