World Tibet Network News Thursday, April 30, 1998 (I)

BEIJING, April 30 (AFP) - China urged the exiled Dalai Lama Thursday to "do something useful for Tibet" and publically recognise Beijing's sovereignty over the mountainous region.

"We hope that the Dalai Lama can size up the situation, forego his illusions and do something useful for his motherland and Tibet," Foreign Ministry spokesman Tang Guoqiang said.

"We are willing to have dialogue with him as long as he acknowledges that Tibet is an inalienable part of China and he publically abandons his desire for Tibetan independence and stops his separatist activities," he added.

Chinese troops "liberated" Tibet in 1951 and the Dalai Lama -- the highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism -- fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.

The Tibetan spritual leader renewed his appeal for talks with China over the future of Tibet during a visit to Japan this month.

"I am not seeking independence but a genuine autonomy," the Dalai Lama said in Tokyo. "There is no change in my position in spite of the recent hardening of the situation in Tibet."

Tentative steps towards dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama were taken for several years in the early 1980s.

Several of the spritual leader's delegations went to China, including Tibet, to examine conditions for direct negotiations with Beijing and the eventual return of the Dalai Lama.

But the dialogue was broken off. Beijing regularly accuses the Dalai Lama of being "a faithful tool of international forces that are hostile to China" and of seeking independence for Tibet.

"The high degree of autonomy advocated by the Dalai Lama is in essence a two-step strategy for Tibetan independence," Tang said.

"The first step is to realise the so-called high degree of autonomy to restore the Dalai Lama's rule over Tibet and the second stage is independence ... its purpose is to fool the international opinion," he added.