Published by: World Tibet Network News, Wednesday, Jun 19, 1996

By Jane Macartney

BEIJING, June 15 (Reuter) - Tibet's government has unveiled its plans for the next 15 years, identifying as a priority the battle to stamp out the exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, as religious leader of the deeply Buddhist Himalayan land.

The region's Ninth Five Year Plan and its goals for 2010, published in the Tibet Daily and available in Beijing on Saturday, identify "The Struggle against Splittism" as one chapter of the guidelines for government in the next 15 years.

"We must expand and deepen and publicly expose and criticise the Dalai Lama, stripping away his cloak of being a 'religious leader'," it said, outlining the plan by the government of the Tibet Autonomous Region

"A great number of facts testify that the Dalai is the chief villain of the splittish poltical clique that is plotting Tibetan independence," it says.

On religious policy, the plan calls for the use of all propaganda tools to counter the plot by the Dalai Lama and his followers to split China.

On April 5, Tibet issued an edict ordering all temples and monasteries in the region to stop displaying pictures of the revered Dalai Lama, allowed since 1979 as part of a Chinese decision to permit religious freedom.

Beijing's tolerance of support of the Dalai Lama has plunged since last year when he identified an alternative choice to China's for the reincarnated Panchen Lama, the region's second spiritual leader. China appears convinced that the Dalai Lama's announcement of his choice for the reincarnation was a deliberate attempt to sabotage the official, party-sanctioned search for the 11th Panchen Lama.

The largely honorary People's Political Consultative Conference on Friday expelled one of its standing committee members -- Qazha Qamba Chilai, or Chadrel Rinpoche -- the former head of the team searching for the 11th Panchen Lama.

It accused him of "collaborating with overseas splittists" in the search. He is believed to have informed the Dalai Lama of progress in the hunt and the identities of possible "soul boys" and was sacked last year.

Beijing regularly accuses the Dalai Lama of fomenting anti-Chinese unrest in Tibet, rocked by numerous anti-Chinese riots and demonstrations in recent years.

Government officials clashed with monks last month at the mountain-top Ganden monastery after they threw out officials sent to tear down pictures of the Dalai Lama.

Officials denied reports that one monk died after being shot by troops who stormed the monastery last month and that a 13-year-old novice had been beaten in detention.