World Tibet Network News Friday, June 26, 1998

Los Angeles Times Friday, June 26, 1998

BEIJING -- China Friday launched a scathing attack on the Dalai Lama, indicating little room for compromise on the issue of Tibet when U.S. President Clinton meets with Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin Saturday. Beijing's top religious official told a news briefing the Dalai Lama was a traitor who planned to split the motherland and restore feudal serfdom in Tibet, which China has ruled since 1950. "The Dalai Lama has greatly disappointed the Tibetan people," said Director of the State Administration for Religious Affairs Ye Xiaowen. "He has damaged Buddhism, undermined Tibet and disrupted the motherland. "Clinton, who arrived in Beijing Friday evening, was expected to urge Beijing to protect Tibet's cultural and religious heritage and resume dialogue with the Dalai Lama who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama has said he is ready for talks "anywhere, anytime" but Beijing demands that he first renounce independence and declare Tibet an inseparable part of China. The 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner has abandoned his calls for Tibetan independence, advocating autonomy within China instead. But Ye accused him of insincerity. "This is another trick the Dalai Lama is playing, the essence of which is toturn a one-step strategy into a two-step strategy." The Dalai Lama planned first to attain a high degree of autonomy and then to seek independence, he said. "If he continues what he is doing, he will meet with retribution according to Buddhist scriptures." Ye said Washington's appointment of a Special Coordinator on Tibet was "inappropriate" and the official, Gregory Craig, was unlikely to be allowed to visit the Himalayan region. "If this coordinator makes irresponsible remarks about Tibetan affairs and interferes in China's internal affairs, he will not be welcome and of course cannot possibly go to Tibet,"

said Ye. Clinton appointed Craig to the new post in November last year amid growing public support for the Dalai Lama and his non-violent campaign for a "free Tibet.

"A string of Hollywood movies about Tibet and publicity campaigns by celebrities such as actor Richard Gere have stirred up unprecedented interestin the Himalayan region. Ye accused Hollywood film-makers of distorting thefacts about Tibet and urged reporters to discard the "fabrication and nonsense conceived in such movies as "Kundun" and "Seven Years in Tibet." "Should we send Tibet back to its original system of feudal serfdom?" he asked."What kind of human rights would Tibet have then?" Ye's speech was illustrated with slides of Tibet before Chinese rule, including one which showed a Tibetan convict with his eyes gouged out. Ye said all Chinese citizens enjoyed religious freedoms but stressed that these freedoms should be limited by law if they threatened public security. Such principles were consistent with the United Nation's covenant on civiland political rights, which Beijing has pledged to sign in the autumn, he said. A U.S.-based Roman Catholic group said Friday Chinese authorities arrested an under

ground Roman Catholic bishop after telling him they wanted him out of the way during Clinton's visit.