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BEIJING: China on Thursday refused to back down on its opposition to talks with the Dalai Lama after US President George W. Bush added his voice to calls for dialogue in an effort to solve the Tibetan crisis.
Following two weeks of deadly protests by Tibetans against China's rule of the remote Himalayan region, Bush phoned Chinese President Hu Jintao on Wednesday to express his concern over the unrest.
The protests and the ensuing crackdown have focused world attention on what Tibetans say is widespread repression in their homeland, angering authorities in Beijing as they prepare to host the Olympics in less than five months.
In their phone call, Bush called for talks to reopen between China and the Dalai Lama's representatives, but Hu restated Beijing's position that the exiled spiritual leader was fomenting the unrest to sabotage the Games.
No talks were possible until the Dalai Lama gave up his independence push for Tibet and stopped "fanning and masterminding" the ongoing Tibetan unrest, Hu told Bush, according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement.
"Especially (the Dalai Lama) must stop... activities to sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games," Hu said.
China has insisted its response to the protests, the biggest challenge to its rule of Tibet in nearly two decades, has been restrained and it has sought to blame rampaging Tibetans for the violence.
China says rioters killed 18 civilians and two police officers, while exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from the Chinese crackdown at between 135 and 140, with another 1,000 people injured and many detained.
Bush's phone call, which broke his silence on the issue, added to concerns expressed by other world leaders in recent days over Tibet, including those of French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
Sarkozy said Tuesday he left open the option of not attending the Olympics opening ceremony as a statement against the Chinese crackdown in Tibet, giving fuel to Tibetan exiles and activist groups who are pushing for a boycott.
The protests began in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, on March 10 to mark the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule of Tibet.
China sent troops in to "liberate" Tibet from feudal rule in 1950 and officially annexed the devoutly Buddhist land the following year.
The latest protests erupted into widespread rioting in Lhasa on March 14, and spread to neighbouring Chinese provinces populated by Tibetans.
China reacted to the protests by sending in huge numbers of security forces and sealing off the hotspot areas, including Lhasa, from foreign reporters and other independent monitors.
Following international pressure to open up those areas to foreign reporters, China allowed a group of 26 journalists in to Lhasa on Wednesday for a three-day guided visit.
Underlying the continued tensions, several dozen monks staged a brief protest on Thursday in the Jokhang Temple, located in the heart of the old Tibetan quarter, in front of the reporters.
The journalists had earlier reported that large areas of Lhasa were heavily scarred from the protests with the Tibetan quarter -- scene of some of the worst violence -- in a virtual lockdown.
"The smell of burning buildings still hangs in the air nearly two weeks after violent rioting swept through the old Tibetan quarter of Lhasa, leaving behind a string of shops and apartments reduced to charcoal frames," the Financial Times reported.
AFP and some other major news organisations were not allowed on the tour of Lhasa, with Chinese officials citing logistical constraints. - AFP/ac
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