Dalai 'used' disgruntled youths: Tibetologist

By Hu Yinan (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-03-19 08:57

Some "unavoidable internal problems", as well as separatists nurtured by both imperialist forces and the Dalai clique, were to blame for last year's deadly riot in Lhasa, the capital of the Tibet autonomous region, a senior Tibetologist said Wednesday.

"China's economy grew fast, and problems such as employment, medical treatment and housing all surfaced, each sparking concerns nationwide, including in Tibet," Zhang Yun, professor of China Tibetology Research Center, told a group of foreign reporters at an exhibition on the 50th anniversary of Tibet's Democratic Reform.

"These problems are found everywhere in the world. In response, the central government spared no effort to introduce a series of common folk-friendly measures, all the while being largely oblivious to the fact that some other forces spared no effort either - only to their own ends," he said.

His remarks came four days after the first anniversary of a riot in Lhasa - the most violent in decades - leading to the deaths of 18 civilians and huge financial losses.

The central government blames the Dalai Lama for masterminding the riot. The Dalai Lama refutes the allegation, saying all demonstrations were spontaneous and "peaceful".

Zhang said the rioters - mostly youths - were used by the Dalai Lama.

Tibet will celebrate its first Serfs' Emancipation Day on March 28, after 50 years since the abolition of slavery after a failed uprising by its feudalistic upper class.

Before 1959, about 95 percent of its 1.14 million population were serfs, who possessed no more than 5 percent of the social resources in Tibet. The upper class, accounting for only 5 percent of the region's population, controlled the rest, by running a brutal, theocratic rule.

The Dalai Lama - old Tibet's top leader - represents the interests of the theocracy's ruling upper class, Zhang said.

"That fact never changed," he stressed. "The Dalai Lama's so-called 'government-in-exile' today is also a theocracy although he no longer explicitly calls for a restoration of serfdom in Tibet, he has always made it a point to praise old Tibet."

On March 10, half a century after the failed uprising that drove him to exile in India, the Dalai Lama said China had brought "hell on earth" to Tibet.

The central government, however, has showed extreme patience with the Dalai Lama. Premier Wen Jiabao last week said the central government's talks with the Dalai Lama might still continue if the political exile gave up his separatist attempts.