World Tibet Network News Thursday, April 02, 1998

BEIJING, April 2 (Reuters) - China on Thursday urged Japan to block a planned visit by the Dalai Lama, saying Tibet's exiled spiritual leader would use the trip to promote independence for the Buddhist region.

Japanese media have reported that the Dalai Lama was scheduled to visit Japan from April 3-12.

``We hope the Japanese authorities can carry out the promises they have made to us concerning the Tibet issue,'' foreign ministry spokesman Zhu Bangzao told a news conference.

``Do not let the Dalai Lama go to Japan. Do not supply a forum for the Dalai's splittist activities,'' Zhu said.

The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner would attend events in the western Japanese city of Kyoto and a welcoming reception in Tokyo on April 11, Japan's media reported.

The Dalai Lama, who has visited Japan five times, fled into exile in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule. He won the Nobel Prize 30 years later for his peaceful campaign for greater Tibetan autonomy.

Human rights campaigners accuse China of repressing the Buddhist clergy in Tibet and encouraging large-scale migration of ethnic Chinese into the technically autonomous region.

Pro-Tibetan protesters in London said on Wednesday they unfurled a Tibetan flag in front of Chinese Premier Zhu Rongji as he was about to address a dinner in his honour during an official visit to Britain.

Tibet has been rocked in the last decade by a string of often violent protests against Chinese rule. Many Tibetan monks and nuns were said to have been sentenced to long prison terms for leading the protests.

China has agreed to a week-long visit to Tibet by envoys from the European Union to assess the human rights situation there, a British Foreign Office official said on Wednesday.