New Delhi, November 9. According UPI, "Tibet's exiled leaders said Wednesday the recent release of four Tibetan prisoners by China was arranged for selfish reasons and did not indicate a change in Beijing's human rights policy. Tibetan leaders have called for an immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners. 'TheChinese announcement does not represent any significant change in their human rights policy', said Kalon Tenzin N. Tethong, spokesman for the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader. 'The world has already witnessed these kinds of exercises used by the Chinese authorities in the past', Tethong said. The spokesman said Beijing ordered the release of Tibetans along with four Chinese dissidents in an attempt to persuade the international community it is improving its human rights record, so that China may be rewarded with greater trade privileges. Last month, Beijing announced plans to propel Tibet into the 21st century by spending $1 billion on new highways, railways, airports and telecom

munications networks in the next six years. Despite the development plans, exiled Tibetans living in northern India say Chinese authorities are trying to eradicate traditional Tibetan Buddhism. 'His holiness is a source of spiritual refuge to all believers in Tibetan Buddhism', the Dalai Lama's spokesman said. 'Denying the right of Tibetans to possess his sacred photo is a contravention of their religious freedom'. According to the Central Tibetan Administration in Dharamsala, India, China has been confiscating photos of the Dalai Lama and banning the sale of any likeness of the spiritual leader. Leaders of India's exiled Tibetan community say China is restricting educational opportunities for children in the region. Tibetan Communist Party officials who sent their children to religious school in India have been ordered to bring the youngsters home or face expulsion from the party, the Tibetan administration said. 'The freeing of the four Tibetans may be linked with the proposed visit of Abdelfattah Amor, th

e United Nations Special Rapporteur on Religious Intolerance to the so-called Tibet autonomous region', Kalon Tethong said". (EuroTibet News nr.5)