Report: Dalai Lama says China fired on Tibetans
PARIS: The Dalai Lama has accused Chinese troops of firing at a crowd of Tibetans in China this week and said people may have been killed, according to an interview published Thursday.
The daily Le Monde quoted the Tibetan spiritual leader, who is currently visiting France, of accusing China of imposing a new, long-term "plan of brutal repression" and building new military camps in Tibetan areas.
The paper also quoted the Dalai Lama as saying that Chinese troops fired on a crowd of Tibetans on Monday in China's region of Kham.
Asked about rumors in the Tibetan community that as many as 140 Tibetans could have been killed in the clashes, he told Le Monde he heard there had been deaths, but added, "The figure needs to be confirmed."
Le Monde's print edition said the Dalai Lama himself had mentioned the figure of 140 deaths, but the reporter later told The Associated Press the number was mentioned onl y in his question, not in the Dalai Lama's response.
AP called the reporter after the prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile, Samdhong Rinpoche, said in Dharmsala, India, that the government has not received any information about violence in Tibet after July 31. He said there were 218 confirmed deaths between March and July 31, but they fear the real number could be far higher.
There was no immediate comment from the Chinese Foreign Ministry about Le Monde's report, which provided no other details about the clashes it referred to.
Kham is traditional Tibetan territory that is now part of Sichuan province in southwest China. Tibetan areas in Sichuan have been near impossible to penetrate, and information about unrest there has been minimal.
Tibetan protesters have sought to make their voices heard during the Olympic Games in China this month, but Chinese authorities keen to keep a lid on unrest have stemmed protests.
Le Monde quoted the Dalai Lama as saying that since a Chinese crackdown on riots in Tibet in March, "reliable witnesses have established that 400 people have been killed in the Lhasa area alone.
"If you consider the whole of Tibet, the number of victims is obviously higher," he was quoted as saying.
He also said that 10,000 people have been arrested since then. "We don't know where they are being held," he was quoted as saying.
He expressed disappointment that talks this year between his representatives and Chinese authorities about Tibet ran aground without breakthroughs, but expressed hope in progress after the Olympics.
The Dalai Lama said Chinese authorities were speeding up construction of military camps in Tibet. "The frenzy of new construction in the Amdo and Kham regions makes me say that this colonization by the army is designed to last," he said.
The Dalai Lama is currently holding spiritual teaching sessions in western France. He is to meet with France's foreign minister and first lady on Friday.
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Associated Press writers Ashwini Bhatia in Dharmsala, India, and Audra Ang in Beijing contributed to this report.