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NEW DELHI: Tibet's exiled leaders on Saturday said talks were more urgently needed "than ever before" between China and the Dalai Lama after Beijing vowed to crush anti-China forces in Tibet.
The comment came after the People's Daily, mouthpiece of China's Communist party, said opposition to Chinese rule in Tibet must be smashed and turned its back on world calls for Beijing to open talks with the Tibetan spiritual icon.
"China has always pursued this hardline and very forceful military solutions to the problems in Tibet, and these have never worked," said Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the exiled leaders who are based in the northern Indian hill town of Dharmashala.
"Talks are more necessary (between the Dalai Lama and China) than ever before" to resolve the unrest, Samphel told AFP as the Dalai Lama was in the Indian capital New Delhi to conduct a week of Buddhist workshops.
Saturday's editorial in the People's Daily said "China must resolutely crush the conspiracy of sabotage and smash 'Tibet independence forces'".
The editorial appeared a day after China launched a massive hunt for Tibetan monks and others it blamed for the protests in Tibet – some of the most violent ever against Beijing's rule in the sprawling Himalayan region.
China's unyielding stance was at the root of "whole Tibet problem", said Samphel. "We believe China is pursuing the wrong policies – very hardline policies that are very ignorant of Tibetan lifestyle and culture.
"If China developed a policy that respected Tibetan culture and gave our people sufficient freedom to keep our culture we would have no complaints."
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he opposes violence and is not promoting independence for Tibet but wants greater autonomy within China.
The spiritual leader, given sanctuary in India after fleeing Tibet following a failed uprising in 1959, earlier this week called on world leaders to press China to begin a dialogue on Tibet.
China has poured big numbers of troops into the region to suppress the protests that have cast a shadow on the Beijing Olympics less than five months away.
On Friday, Japan and Poland joined the United States and other nations in an appeal for dialogue. They were followed on Saturday by 30 prominent Chinese writers and intellectuals who signed a letter urging talks.
Polish President Lech Kaczynski said China should talk to the Dalai Lama as it readied to host the Olympics, as the opening of "dialogue now would have a symbolic dimension" in the context of the August Games.
The Dalai Lama would stick to his stand that the Olympics should go ahead despite the crackdown, the Tibetan spokesman said.
"I don't think he'll change his mind," Samphel said as Greece geared up for Monday's lighting of the Olympic flame – the symbolic launch to events leading up to the Games.
"His Holiness has said China deserves to host the Olympics as it's the most populous nation on earth and its ability to host the Games may integrate it better with the outside world," he said.
"It may also have a more benign influence on the leadership's attitude," he added.
- AFP/so
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