BEIJING: A spate of self-immolations by ethnic Tibetans in China over the past few months in protest at government controls will never succeed in forcing any policy changes, a senior Chinese official was quoted as saying in remarks published on Friday.
Twelve Tibetans have set themselves on fire so far this year, all but one in a heavily Tibetan part of the southwestern province of Sichuan, which is historically part of Tibet. At least six of the protesters have died.
Zhu Weiqun, a vice minister of the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department — which has led unsuccessful on-off talks with the Dalai Lama’s envoys — said there were “divisions” in the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader’s camp.
“I can honestly say to our friends that even if such a thing happens again, the direction of the Chinese government’s policies in Tibet and our attitude toward the Dalai clique’s struggle will not change in any way,” Zhu said in comments carried on government website tibet.cn.
The Dalai Lama’s supporters had “deceived several naive and young people to self-immolate in order to pressure the Chinese government”, Zhu said.
“Any political group that has to resort to the step of deceiving its own people to burn themselves in order to maintain its own livelihood, can this type of group last?” Zhu’s remarks were included in a transcript of a meeting between him and European officials and academics in Brussels earlier this month.
China’s Foreign Ministry has branded the self-immolators “terrorists” and has said the Dalai Lama, whom it condemns as a supporter of violent separatism, should take the blame for the “immoral” burnings.
The Dalai Lama, revered by Tibetans, has not condemned or condoned the burnings but said the desperate conditions Tibetans face under Beijing’s rigid controls in what amounted to “cultural genocide” have led to the spate of self-immolations.
The Nobel Peace Prize-winning monk, who fled into exile in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has repeatedly denied advocating violence and insists he wants only real autonomy for his homeland rather than independence.
China has ruled what it calls the Tibet Autonomous Region with an iron fist since Communist troops marched in in 1950.
While other Tibetan parts of China, such as Sichuan, have generally been ruled with a lighter touch, there have been frequent bouts of unrest there, too. (PTI)