Nepal: Dalai Lama is not a Buddhist monk at all

1. We all know that, recently Lhasa has witnessed serious criminal act of violence involving beating, smashing, looting and burning. The rioters rampantly chanted “Tibet Independence” slogans loudly, and waved the so-called “National flag of Tibet”. They beat whomever they met, smashed and burnt whatever they found. Some criminals took advantage of the disordered situation and looted properties from households and shops. The incident has claimed lives of 18 innocent people. More than 300 people got hurt and many schools, hospitals were smashed or burnt.

2. The law-enforcement authorities in Tibet Autonomous Region of China took resolute measures to deal with the riot. The police and the armed police have exercised great restraint in handling the rioters. They did not carry any lethal weapons. 240 policemen and armed policemen sustained injuries during the process of executing the law, 23 of them badly injured and 1 died. Currently, the social order in Lhasa has been restored. Schools and hospitals have resumed running. Up to now, the number of arrested criminal suspects has reached 414, and 289 criminals gave themselves in to the police. Searches of police in some monasteries had turned up a large number of weapons. Several days before, some foreign journalists and diplomats stationed in China visited Lhasa.

3. The criminal act of violence happened in Lhasa was carefully schemed and organized by overseas “Tibet Independence” groups aiming at sabotaging the Beijing Olympics. The separatists also attempted to provoke confrontations among different ethnic groups, destroy ethnic unity of China, thus to split Tibet from the motherland. You may know that, on March 10, 1959, the Dalai clique launched armed insurgency in Tibet and then fled abroad. They established the so-called “Tibetan Government-in-Exile”, constituted the so-called Constitution which claimed that a country would be set up in the land of Tibet. They also established some “Tibet Independence” organizations such as “Tibetan Youth Congress”, “Tibetan Women’s Association”, and so on. Most of the important members of these organizations are from the so-called “Tibetan Government-in-Exile”. They serve as the vanguard and main force of the Dalai clique to achieve their goal of “Tibet Independence”. They claimed to use all means including armed violence. Around March 10 this year, they used all channels to forward information to the Tibetan separatists within China to “make full use of this rare opportunity” and “bravely walk out to the streets”, and claimed that this year is the last chance of Tibetan people.

4. Recently, the Dalai clique and its “Tibet Independence” organizations resorted to false propaganda to confuse truth and falsehood, fabricate lies of “crackdown” and “bloodshed” in Lhasa. The rioters that attacked innocents have been termed as “peaceful demonstrators”. The Dalai clique fabricated lies, deceived Tibetan compatriots overseas and incited ethnic hatred by using despicable means.

5. It is notable that several western media made plenty of irresponsible reports on the incident, deceived their readers and viewers, and lost the news agency’s ethics of upholding objectiveness and fairness. Some of them published pictures after cutting, described the ambulance as the police car, and termed rescue as capture. One of the media even described preventing people from intruding in the Chinese Embassy of the Nepal Police here as Chinese police capturing protesters.

6. In recent days, many Tibetans living in Nepal, including a lot of youth and women, who have no ideas about the truth, staged protests in front of the Embassy and UN agencies, accusing the Chinese government of repressing and killing Tibetans, and even damaging the buildings of the Embassy. Their feelings are understandable because they don’t know the truth. However, what’s abominable are the Dalai clique and the organizations for “Tibet Independence” behind them. The ringleaders of these organizations, some of whom are plotting behind and some of whom are conducting the protest on the spot, urged Tibetans to storm into the Embassy, for fear of nonoccurrence of violent incidents. There was also criminal act of violence involving beating and smashing in Kathmandu against those Tibetans who held different propositions with the separatist forces for “Tibet Independence”. We hope the Government of Nepal could uphold justice, safeguard the dignity of the law, and take severer measures to prevent these political organizations from organizing and implementing illegal political activities.

7. Many people believe that Dalai Lama pursues peace and nonviolence, and has renounced his position on “Tibet Independence”. I have to tell you that he is saying one thing while doing another. We can not only listen to what he says, but also see what he does and whether he will do something good for the future of Tibet and Tibetan people in his remaining year. Recently, Dalai claimed that Chinese policemen disguised themselves as monks in the Lhasa incident, and voiced an appeal to the Chinese people across the globe publicly. There are lots of lies in his appeal. His attempt to clear himself of the link with the Lhasa incident is futile, and he doesn’t deserve to be a Buddhist monk at all. I read some remarks by an American. He said that, there are some “political monks” who looks like monks but does politics. In fact, the Central Government has maintained contacts and consultations with Dalai’s representatives in recent years. But Dalai’s representatives firmly opposed the current mechanism and social system in Tibet. It is clear that 50 years ago Tibet was under the theocratic and feudalist serfdom system. Among 3.2 million Tibetans, there are 2 million serfs, namely slaves, and only a few of rest one million non-serfs are serf-owners. You can ask how many of nearly 3 million Tibetans in Tibet would like to go back to the serfdom society. It is universally acknowledged that earth-shaking changes have taken place in Tibet for the last 50 years. Dalai claims to protect the Tibetan culture. Had he believed the theocratic and feudalist serfdom system was Tibetan culture and attempted to restore the system, it is a wishful thinking. There are currently more than 1780 religious sites in Tibet with over 46000 monks and nuns.

The religious freedom is fully respected, and people who have visited Tibet are clear about that. Dalai also claims establishing a “Greater Tibet Area”, which accounts for nearly a quarter of China’s territory and had never existed in China’s history, and in which non-Tibetans and Chinese troops should be moved out completely. That is daydreaming.

[Original remarks made by the Chinese Ambassador to Nepal H.E. Zheng Xianglin at the Press Briefing on "Lhasa Serious Criminal Act", dated April 2, 2008, at the Chinese Embassy Premises]

Posted on : 2008-04-03 08:22:51

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