Govt restricts coverage of Dalai Lama's visit

NEW DELHI: The government refused on Thursday to allow foreign journalists to cover the Dalai Lama's visit to a northeastern state at the heart of a long-running border dispute with China.

Requests for permits allowing foreign correspondents to travel to Arunachal Pradesh state were declined, and the government revoked passes previously given to four of them, including two Associated Press journalists.

Foreigners require special government permission to visit the mountainous state.

``We are incredibly surprised and disappointed to learn that reporters' visas to Arunachal Pradesh have been canceled ahead of the Dalai Lama's visit,'' said Heather Timmons, president of the New Delhi-based Foreign Correspondents' Club.

China has strongly opposed the Tibetan spiritual leader's visit to a Buddhist monastery in the Arunachal Pradesh town of Tawang beginning Sunday.

Although relations between India and China have improved in recent years, tensions can flare because of sharpening economic rivalries, lingering bitterness over their shared border, and unrest in Tibet- the Chinese controlled Himalayan region on the Indian frontier.

Last week, the Dalai Lama said China was overpoliticizing his travels, adding his decisions on where to go were spiritual in nature, not political.

Beijing opposes most activities of the Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India and whom it accuses of advocating independence from Chinese rule for his native Tibet.

The Indian foreign ministry spokesman was not available for comment.