The Dalai Lama accused Chinese soldiers yesterday of firing on a crowd in Tibet this week and killing a reported 140 people, as he warned that Beijing was planning the long-term “repression” of his people.
“The Chinese army again fired on a crowd on Monday Aug. 18, in the Kham region in eastern Tibet,” the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader said in an interview with France’s Le Monde newspaper.
“One hundred and forty Tibetans are reported to have been killed, but the figure needs to be confirmed,” said the 73-year-old Buddhist who is in France for a 12-day visit.
Planned more than two years ago, the Dalai Lama’s French visit turned political after a Chinese crackdown on unrest in Tibet in March that sparked international outrage.
LHASA KILLINGS
In the Le Monde interview, he said that since March, “reliable witnesses say that 400 people have been killed in the region of [the Tibetan capital] Lhasa alone.”
“Killed by bullets, even though they were protesting without weapons. Their bodies were never given back to their families … Ten thousand people have been arrested. We don’t know where they are imprisoned,” he said.
The March violence erupted in Lhasa after four days of peaceful protests against nearly six decades of Chinese rule.
The Dalai Lama said it looked as though Chinese security forces were planning to continue their crackdown for many years to come.
While Chinese forces have long been present in the Himalayan region, “what is new is the construction of military camps.”
BUILDING ‘FRENZY’
He said the “frenzy” of military building in the regions of Amdo and Kham “makes me think that this colonization by the army is destined to last.”
“A project of long-term brutal repression is under way,” he said.
He said that in the run-up to the Olympic Games that began this month, he had been hopeful of progress, encouraged by the commitment of Chinese President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) to begin serious talks.
“But we were quickly disillusioned. Our envoys came up against a wall. There was no opening,” he said in the interview.
He added that autonomy and not independence remained his goal for Tibet.
“Real autonomy, because we know what Chinese-style autonomy is: a trap,” he said.
France is struggling to mend ties with China after French President Nicolas Sarkozy angered Beijing by threatening to boycott the opening of the Olympic Games following the Chinese crackdown in Tibet.
Sarkozy, who has declined to meet the Dalai Lama during his visit to France, did however finally attend the ceremony in Beijing on Aug. 8. Sarkozy has been accused of snubbing the Lama to avoid provoking China during the Olympic Games, although the entourage of the Buddhist leader said he had not sought to see the president.
The Tibetan leader is set to meet with Sarkozy’s pop star wife Carla Bruni and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner today.
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