Beijing Olympics should go on, says Dalai Lama
The Dalai Lama on Sunday firmly backed the Beijing Olympics despite the Chinese crackdown on Tibetan protesters that prompted demands for boycott of the games.
By PTI |
NEW DELHI: The Dalai Lama on Sunday firmly backed the Beijing Olympics despite the Chinese crackdown on Tibetan protesters that prompted demands for boycott of the games.
"I have always supported that Olympic Games should take place in China," he told reporters here, terming as "baseless" the communist giant's charge that he was trying to "sabotage" the premier sporting event slated for August.
"They are the hosts. The Olympics should take place in Beijing," the 72-year-old spiritual leader who heads the Tibetan government in exile and was here in connection with a religious workshop, said.
His comments came as the Chinese government continued its vitriolic attack on the monk accusing him of holding the games "hostage" to force it to yield on the issue of Tibetan independence, plotting "terror" in Tibet and colluding with Islamic Uygur separatists in Xinjiang in northwest China.
China is struggling to the crush most vicious protest against its rule in Tibet in two decades which brought it under international scrutiny ahead of the Olympics through which it had intended to showcase its phenomenal development.
Rights activists and Tibetan protesters have been demanding a boycott of the games. International pressure on Beijing to hold dialogue with the Dalai Lama ahead of the Olympics mounted with European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering saying a boycott was "justified" if China shunned such talks.
"Beijing must decide. It must negotiate with the Dalai Lama immediately," he told the mass circulation Bild daily.
"We should not exclude the possibility of a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. We want a successful Games, but not at the price of cultural genocide," he said.
"I have always supported that Olympic Games should take place in China," he told reporters here, terming as "baseless" the communist giant's charge that he was trying to "sabotage" the premier sporting event slated for August.
"They are the hosts. The Olympics should take place in Beijing," the 72-year-old spiritual leader who heads the Tibetan government in exile and was here in connection with a religious workshop, said.
His comments came as the Chinese government continued its vitriolic attack on the monk accusing him of holding the games "hostage" to force it to yield on the issue of Tibetan independence, plotting "terror" in Tibet and colluding with Islamic Uygur separatists in Xinjiang in northwest China.
China is struggling to the crush most vicious protest against its rule in Tibet in two decades which brought it under international scrutiny ahead of the Olympics through which it had intended to showcase its phenomenal development.
Rights activists and Tibetan protesters have been demanding a boycott of the games. International pressure on Beijing to hold dialogue with the Dalai Lama ahead of the Olympics mounted with European Parliament President Hans-Gert Poettering saying a boycott was "justified" if China shunned such talks.
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"Beijing must decide. It must negotiate with the Dalai Lama immediately," he told the mass circulation Bild daily.
"We should not exclude the possibility of a boycott of the Beijing Olympics. We want a successful Games, but not at the price of cultural genocide," he said.
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