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DHARAMSHALA, India : The Dalai Lama on Sunday condemned what he called China's "rule of terror" and "cultural genocide" in Tibet, calling for an international probe into unrest in his homeland.
The Tibetan leadership, based in northern India claims 80 people have been confirmed dead in the Himalayan region, contradicting the Chinese official report of 10 fatalities in days of unrest.
The dead included 26 people shot near a prison in the Tibetan capital Lhasa, aides to the Dalai Lama said.
"They simply rely on using force in order to simulate peace, a peace brought by force using a rule of terror," the Dalai Lama said in Dharamshala, his home since fleeing Tibet after a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
The unrest in the vast Himalayan region, which began last week after the 49th anniversary of the 1959 revolt, has been the biggest challenge to China's rule in nearly two decades.
"Please investigate, if possible... some international organisation can try firstly to inquire about the situation in Tibet," the Buddhist spiritual leader said.
"Whether intentionally or unintentionally, some cultural genocide is taking place. There is some kind of discrimination: the Tibetans in their own land quite often are treated as second-class citizens," he added.
"Some trusted group should go there and see how it happened," added the Dalai Lama, who has long complained that Beijing is flooding Tibet with Han Chinese to make the Tibetans a minority in their homeland.
But the Dalai Lama, a Nobel peace laureate, refrained from calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics in August, as many Tibetan exiles have been demanding.
"The Chinese people... need to feel proud of it. China deserves to be a host of the Olympic Games," he said, adding however that Beijing also needed to be "reminded to be a good host."
Officials in Lhasa rejected the Dalai Lama's comments, Chinese state media reported on Sunday.
"'The rule of terror in Tibet', as Dalai claimed, was downright nonsense," said an official identified only as Legqoi, deputy director of the Standing Committee of the Tibetan Regional People's Congress, according to the Xinhua news agency.
"Should the Dalai separatists group not spoil (the stability in Tibet), Tibet would be in its best period of development in history," Lhasa Mayor Doje Cezhug told Xinhua.
The Dalai Lama's remarks came hours after China declared a "people's war" in Tibet, and as witnesses reported repeated gunfire in the Tibetan capital on Saturday amid a huge security build-up by Chinese forces.
On Sunday, Chinese security forces were said to be patrolling the streets of the now-calm but tense Tibetan capital.
The Dalai Lama also appealed to China to recognise he wanted autonomy for Tibet, and not independence, and that his campaign was non-violent.
The unrest in Tibet and Chinese crackdown prompted furious protests on Sunday in Dharamshala, with activists nailing Chinese flags to the ground for people to walk on.
"China should stop the brutal crackdown and genocide," said Sonam Darjee, a leader of the Tibetan Youth Congress - a pro-independence group which views the Dalai Lama's call for greater autonomy as not going far enough.
Exiles held a candlelit vigil on Sunday, and more demonstrations were expected on Monday.
Asked if he was able to bring an end to Tibetan protests, the Dalai Lama said, "I have no such power."
"It's a people's movement, I consider myself a people's servant, I cannot ask people not to do this, not to do that," he said.
But "everyone knows my principle - knows (it is) completely non-violence... Violence is almost like suicide."
Aides to the Dalai Lama said they had confirmed 80 deaths in the Chinese crackdown, but said that figure could rise.
"At this point of time, we have 80 dead, confirmed," said one aide, Tenzin Taklha. But he added: "It's very difficult to verify these things. For example, one person counted 68 other bodies in a morgue, but it's difficult to confirm." - AFP/so/de
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