TIBET TO CONTEST DALAI LAMA TOTALLY

The International Herald Tribune, Wednesday 20 November 1996

AFP

BEIJING - The Communist Party has vowed to eradicate the Dalai Lama's influence from every level of Tibetan society, suppressing some religious festivals and closing religious shrines. "Separatists are challenging us for supremacy on all fronts - among the masses, among the youth and in the monasteries," the Tibetan party's central committee said in an article carried by the newspaper Tibet Daily and seen here Tuesday. The anti-autonomy campaign launched in the region's monasteries this year must therefore be broadened to include business circles, schools and officials considered too "receptive" to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, the article said. The central committee report followed a weeklong meeting of its leadership in the capital, Lhasa. The struggle against the Dalai Lama must be fought in all grounds, without sparing certain customs and traditions, the committee said, highlighting religious festivals that "affect production." As a result, the committee signalled the adoption of "adm

inistrative measures to resolve the uncontrolled proliferation. of religious festivals and shrines." Last week, the party chief of Tibet, Chen Kuiyuan, denounced what he termed the excessive number of shrines in the region, as well as the growing ranks of monks and nuns, "which surpass the number of high school students." He also attacked a revival of what he described as feudal practices, including polygamy, which challenged birth control policies in the region. According to the committee's final report, the strengthening of controls over daily life in Tibet must also involve close supervision of literature and the arts to guarantee that they fulfil the socialist role of "serving the people," rather than propagating "spiritual garbage." "Party officials and the masses must understand that in the struggle against the Dalai Lama, the basic question is not one of belief or autonomy, but of the unity of the country," the committee said. The committee identified the key battleground as being among Tibetan youth

and called on every school in the region to push socialist teachings and focus on political and ideological education." The Dalai Lama, the committee said, was the chief representative of "foreign forces that promote westernization and the division of China."