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China blasts Dalai Lama over negotiations doubts
2008-11-04
BEIJING - China's state media launched a scathing attack Tuesday on the Dalai Lama over recent comments expressing doubt over the usefulness of new talks between Beijing and his Tibetan government-in-exile. The Xinhua News Agency commentary issued Tuesday came as the sides were believed to be preparing for their first negotiations since Beijing hosted the Olympics in August. The Tibetan envoys arrived in Beijing on Thursday, although it isn't clear whether any actual talks have taken place. Previous rounds have produced no substantive results. The Dalai Lama said Monday his efforts to secure Tibetan autonomy have failed to bring positive changes and he is unsure whether new talks will produce any breakthroughs. "By stressing his 'disappointment' over the contacts and negotiations, the Dalai Lama deliberately adopted a pathetic posture only in an attempt to draw public attention and sympathy," Xinhua said. "His 'disappointment' also showed his reluctance to give up his stance to seek 'Tibetan independence,'" Xinhua said. Questioned whether talks between the sides were under way, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang refused to say. "I believe the competent authorities will release information in due course," Qin said at a regularly scheduled news conference. The attack employed Beijing's standard rhetoric for disparaging the 73-year-old Nobel laureate, but was unusual in its intensity and seemed designed to counter any attempt by his envoys to gain an upper hand going in the talks. The Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, says he does not seek Tibet's separation from China but wants meaningful autonomy that would ensure the survival of the Himalayan region's unique Buddhist culture. However, in a string of comments beginning last month, he has sounded increasingly pessimistic over the prospects of a negotiated solution and has called a special meeting of Tibetan exile communities and political organizations later this month to discuss the future of their struggle. China, which has governed Tibet since Communist troops occupied it in the 1950s, has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama of leading a campaign to split the Himalayan region from the rest of the country. Relations have been particularly tense this year. In March, peaceful demonstrations against Chinese rule in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, exploded into violence. Beijing says 22 people were killed in the riots, in which hundreds of shops were torched and Chinese civilians attacked. China then launched a massive crackdown in Tibet and a broad swath of Tibetan areas in the country's western regions. Tibetan exile groups said at least 140 people died. More than 1,000 people were detained, although human rights groups say the number could be higher. ___ Associated Press Writer Henry Sanderson in Beijing contributed to this report.
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