Monday, March 17, 2008

Dalai Lama calls for genocide probe

The Dalai Lama has called for an investigation into whether cultural genocide, intentional or not, was taking place in Tibet.

The Buddhist spiritual leader added China was relying on force to achieve peace and that the international community had the "moral responsibility" to remind China to be a good host for the Olympic Games.

However, the Dalai Lama does not think the Olympics should be called off and he said China deserved to host the Games.

"The Tibet nation is facing serious danger. Whether China's government admits or not, there is a problem," the Dalai Lama said.

"The situation reminds me of the uprising in 1959 when I was forced to flee into exile.

"It has become really very, very tense. And today I had the same experience as in 1959 after March 10," he said.

He said that with both sides being "determined", the end result will be killing and more suffering.

There was no comment from China's foreign ministry.

Yesterday, police and troops locked down Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, two days after ugly street protests against Chinese rule that the contested region's government-in-exile said had killed 80 people.

Monks first took to the streets of Tibet last Monday to mark the 49th anniversary of an earlier uprising, and protests soon spread to adjoining regions inhabited by pockets of Tibetans.
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