By S Gopal Puri,
Times of India, 11 December 2012
DHARAMSHALA: The Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) has openly challenged China and has invited Chinese authorities to its headquarters while contradicting allegations leveled by Beijing authorities that Tibetan government-in-exile incites self-immolations in Tibet.
“CTA invites Chinese authorities to send an investigative team to Dharamshala to prove their assertion that the self-immolations are incited by the Tibetan government and the Dalai Lama. This is in the wake of the recent Xinhua report alleging that two Tibetans have confessed that the Dalai Lama instructed Tibetans to set themselves on fire,” said a CTA spokesperson.
“If China genuinely wishes to end the self-immolations, instead of resorting to the blame game, it should allow unfettered access to international bodies to Tibetan areas to investigate the root cause,” said Lobsang Sangay, political successor to Dalai Lama.
Pressing its demand for genuine autonomy, CTA further said that there is a way for China to end the crisis in Tibet and the path has been clearly laid out by Dalai Lama – the middle-way policy.
“The policy does not seek independence for Tibet. Rather, it seeks that the Tibetan plateau comes under one single administration which enjoys real autonomy within the scope of the constitution of People’s Republic China,” CTA said.
Dalai Lama’s noble prize anniversary commemorated
Tibetan government-in-exile commemorated the 23rd anniversary of the conferment of the Nobel Peace Prize upon the Dalai Lama and 64th anniversary of the International Human Rights Day. On this occasion, the Tibetan administration said that self-immolations are a non-violent way of protests.
Lobsang Sangay said that self-immolations are a continuation of a sustained non-violent Tibetan resistance against the repression of Tibetans. “Inevitably, the Chinese Communist Party has blamed the self-immolations on the exiled Tibetan leadership. But to blame the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan administration is a frank admission by the Chinese government of its utter failure to win loyalty of the Tibetans,” Sangay said.