Chinese rule is handing down a “death sentence” to Tibetans, the Dalai Lama said yesterday, ahead of a meeting to decide Tibet’s future approach to Beijing.
The region’s exiled leader is on a week-long visit to Japan for talks on spirituality, just as a new round of talks between his envoys and Chinese officials was set to begin, and days after he said he had lost hope of any productive dialogue with Beijing.
“Tibetans are being handed down a death sentence. This ancient nation, with an ancient cultural heritage is dying,” he told a group of reporters.
PHOTO: AFP
“Today, the situation is almost like a military occupation in the entire Tibetan area. It is like we’re under martial law. Fear, terror and lots of political education are causing a lot of grievance,” he said.
The 73-year old Nobel laureate said he was “semi-retiring” because of stalled talks with Beijing, and said he would convene a meeting on Nov. 17 to discuss Tibet’s future approach to dealing with China.
“We will listen to the people’s suggestions, and then I think things will become clear,” he said. “I don’t think I will completely retire, but for the time being while dealing with the Chinese central government, I can no longer take full direct responsibility. My position is completely neutral.”
“Because we believe in democratic principles, the people should express their real feelings. I should not be hindering their opinions,” he said.
The Dalai Lama, who has lived in India since fleeing Tibet in 1959, is a frequent visitor to Japan, where he enjoys an active following. During his stay, he is scheduled to give speeches arranged by a Japanese Buddhist group and Tibetan supporters. He will also visit children and monks.
China accuses the Dalai Lama of trying to split Tibet from Beijing through his travels overseas.
The Dalai Lama’s stated position has been one of seeking meaningful autonomy for Tibet within China. However, last weekend he said he had all but given up hope of reaching a mutually acceptable solution.
DOUBLE-MURDER CASE: The officer told the dispatcher he would check the locations of the callers, but instead headed to a pizzeria, remaining there for about an hour A New Jersey officer has been charged with misconduct after prosecutors said he did not quickly respond to and properly investigate reports of a shooting that turned out to be a double murder, instead allegedly stopping at an ATM and pizzeria. Franklin Township Police Sergeant Kevin Bollaro was the on-duty officer on the evening of Aug. 1, when police received 911 calls reporting gunshots and screaming in Pittstown, about 96km from Manhattan in central New Jersey, Hunterdon County Prosecutor Renee Robeson’s office said. However, rather than responding immediately, prosecutors said GPS data and surveillance video showed Bollaro drove about 3km
Tens of thousands of people on Saturday took to the streets of Spain’s eastern city of Valencia to mark the first anniversary of floods that killed 229 people and to denounce the handling of the disaster. Demonstrators, many carrying photos of the victims, called on regional government head Carlos Mazon to resign over what they said was the slow response to one of Europe’s deadliest natural disasters in decades. “People are still really angry,” said Rosa Cerros, a 42-year-old government worker who took part with her husband and two young daughters. “Why weren’t people evacuated? Its incomprehensible,” she said. Mazon’s
‘MOTHER’ OF THAILAND: In her glamorous heyday in the 1960s, former Thai queen Sirikit mingled with US presidents and superstars such as Elvis Presley The year-long funeral ceremony of former Thai queen Sirikit started yesterday, with grieving royalists set to salute the procession bringing her body to lie in state at Bangkok’s Grand Palace. Members of the royal family are venerated in Thailand, treated by many as semi-divine figures, and lavished with glowing media coverage and gold-adorned portraits hanging in public spaces and private homes nationwide. Sirikit, the mother of Thai King Vajiralongkorn and widow of the nation’s longest-reigning monarch, died late on Friday at the age of 93. Black-and-white tributes to the royal matriarch are being beamed onto towering digital advertizing billboards, on
SECRETIVE SECT: Tetsuya Yamagami was said to have held a grudge against the Unification Church for bankrupting his family after his mother donated about ￥100m The gunman accused of killing former Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe yesterday pleaded guilty, three years after the assassination in broad daylight shocked the world. The slaying forced a reckoning in a nation with little experience of gun violence, and ignited scrutiny of alleged ties between prominent conservative lawmakers and a secretive sect, the Unification Church. “Everything is true,” Tetsuya Yamagami said at a court in the western city of Nara, admitting to murdering the nation’s longest-serving leader in July 2022. The 45-year-old was led into the room by four security officials. When the judge asked him to state his name, Yamagami, who
RSS