World Tibet Network News Tuesday, April 28, 1998 (II)

NEW DELHI, India, April 28, 1998 (AP) -- The Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled spiritual leader, on Tuesday clasped the bandaged hand of a badly burned Tibetan activist and urged him to live on ``for a free Tibet.''

The 60-year-old activist, Thupten Ngodup, set himself afire in protest Monday when authorities forced other Tibetans to end their hunger strike.

The Dalai Lama was at a hospital on Tuesday to visit Ngodup, who was in critical condition, and six other people who had been on a hunger strike.

Doctors said five were recovering, but one, a 28-year-old, was in critical condition with a heart problem caused by the fast. The fast had been held since March 10 in downtown New Delhi to protest Chinese rule of Tibet.

Earlier Tuesday, five Tibetans began an indefinite hunger strike, replacing the six hospitalized against their will by police. Ngodup was to have participated in the new fast.

After the hospital visit, the Dalai Lama released a statement describing such methods of protest as violent, but added, ``I do admire the motivation and determination of these Tibetans.''

He called for renewed international commitment to a peaceful resolution of the dispute between Tibetan independence activists and China, which invaded Tibet in 1950.

`For many years, I've been able to persuade the Tibetan people to eschew violence in our freedom struggle,'' he said. ``Today, it's clear that a sense of frustration and urgency is building up among many Tibetans.''

The hunger strike was the longest such protest yet staged by exiles in India.

Police said they stopped the hunger strike on Sunday and Monday for humanitarian reasons. Suicide is illegal in India.

The Tibetans accused India of stopping the strike because of Gen. Fu Quanyou, the first Chinese military chief to visit India. Fu visited the Taj Mahal on Tuesday, the third day of his four-day visit.

The protesters want a U.N. General Assembly debate on the Chinese annexation of Tibet in 1959; appointment of a human rights observer in Tibet; and a U.N.-supervised referendum on whether Tibetans want independence, greater autonomy or some other solution.