‘Tibet turned into prison camp’
TIBET: The speaker of Tibet’s parliament-in-exile Tuesday accused
China of turning the Himalayan region into a giant prison camp as he
opened the biggest meeting of the Tibetan leadership in four years.
“A state of undeclared martial law continues to remain in force in
Tibet,” Penpa Tsering said in an opening address at the conclave held in
northern India. “(China) has converted Tibet into a territory resembling
a prison camp.” The meeting comes ahead of an expected change in
leadership in Beijing and is the first such gathering since the Dalai
Lama passed on his mantle as political leader of the Tibetans to prime
minister-in-exile Lobsang Sangay.
Some observers have suggested that China’s president-in-waiting Xi
Jinping may be more flexible on Tibet and offer to restart talks with
the exiled leadership. A spate of self-immolation suicides by Tibetan
monks has alarmed the exiled leadership and Tsering said they reflected
a sense of despair.
“The question (is) how and in what ways we, the Tibetan people living
in exile, should respond to the tragic situation in Tibet today,” he
said. “Over the past 60 years the Chinese government has continued to
pursue a policy of assimilation designed to obliterate the ethnic
identity of the Tibetan people.
AFP
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