Beijing says Dalai Lama 'masterminded' Tibet unrest
Updated
China's premier Wen Jiabao has accused the Dalai Lama of orchestrating Tibet's biggest protests against Chinese rule in almost two decades. His comments came after a deadline passed for Tibetan protestors to hand themselves in or face harsh consequences.
Presenter: Sen Lam
Speaker: Kate Saunders of the International Campaign for Tibet
SAUNDERS: Very disturbing reports of house to house searches by soldiers, very aggressive approaches by the authorities and hardline approach towards the Dalai Lama. We just heard in an instant message communication with someone in Lhasa that a neighbour's son had been found with a picture of the Dalai Lama around his neck in a pendant and had immediately being taken into custody and beaten very badly and still can't stand up. So it seems as though the authorities are searching for any people who've been involved, anybody who has any sort of loyalty to the Dalai Lama, very much a political agenda, very much a hardline approach. I also hear that in Beijing the foreign ministry summoned reporters into a sort of emergency briefing on Tibet a few hours before the deadline expired and they were told that they would act according to the law, and that the Chinese embassies around the country had been threatened by the protests, by Tibetan exiles. So very much a hardline approach coming from Beijing at the moment.
LAM: Indeed Beijing also says that the Dalai Lama had planned these protests, these violent riots. Has there been any response from the Dalai Lama do you know?
SAUNDERS: Yes the Dalai Lama actually spoke yesterday; he's following events very anxiously indeed. He said yesterday in a statement that there was a sense of similarity with March the 10th uprising 1959 which led to his escape into exile, and he felt that the Chinese were determined, the Tibetans were determined on their side and this led to killings. So he's extremely concerned about what's going on and extremely concerned about the force being used at present.
LAM: Chinese authorities earlier this week threatened to track down the protestors if they did not voluntarily surrendered. Can you tell us about the number of people arrested so far, do we know?
SAUNDERS: We don't actually know, what we've heard is that there are many people who are injured, some very seriously. We've heard unconfirmed reports that there have been more killings today, we've heard that government hospitals in Tibet are refusing to treat some people who are brought in who are wounded, and that's the same situation as we had in the late 1980s during the imposition of martial law. It seems that government hospitals may have been instructed not to receive the wounded. So this is a very dark time at the moment and everybody's very anxious about what will happen over the next few days.
