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'Torch will go through Tibet'
07/04/2008 07:29 - (SA)
Beijing - China's top official in Tibet, rejecting a demand of activists around the world, has insisted that the Beijing Olympics torch relay will pass through the Himalayan region as planned.
The iconic flame was carried through London on Sunday, where demonstrations against the Chinese crackdown in Tibet saw 35 protesters arrested, but the Dalai Lama urged Tibetan exiles not to disrupt events leading up to the Games.
Zhang Qingli, the most senior Chinese Communist Party official in Tibet, told local leaders that Beijing was in no mood to listen to the demands of demonstrators calling for the route to be changed.
In a statement on the Tibet government website on Sunday, Zhang said Tibet was determined to play its part in a successful Olympics by hosting the torch relay on June 19 and 20 and overseeing the flame's ascent of Mount Everest in May.
He urged people to "deepen their drive to complete the glorious, important and arduous task" of having the torch pass through Tibet.
Zhang said that most of Tibet had now been pacified after anti-Chinese riots broke out last month.
Situation can no longer be 'neglected'
The Dalai Lama said on Sunday that protests in Tibet and nearby provinces had disproven Chinese "propaganda" about unrest in the region, adding the situation could no longer be "neglected".
The exiled spiritual leader repeated his call for an independent international probe into the unrest and subsequent Chinese crackdown, and again rejected Beijing's allegations that he was behind the trouble.
"The recent protests all over Tibet have not only contradicted but also shattered the People's Republic of China's propaganda that except for a few 'reactionaries', the majority of Tibetans enjoy a prosperous and contented life," the Dalai Lama said in a statement released from his home in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala.
"These protests have also conveyed to the world that the Tibet issue can no longer be neglected."
Violence in Tibet and Chinese regions has triggered worldwide protests over the Beijing Olympics, with pro-Tibet activists demanding that the torch relay be diverted from the tiny Himalayan nation.
- AFP
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