By IANS,
New Delhi : The worst is yet to come for Tibetans in Lhasa and it will come after the Olympic Games in Beijing, fears the Tibetan Solidarity Committee based in India.
“We fear that the worst is yet to come and it will be after the Olympics”, a statement issued by the committee Thursday said.
The TSC, a joint committee of the Tibetan Parliament in Exile and the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), held a press conference a day earlier to highlight its position on the recent developments in Tibet.
The committee, however, reiterated that Tibetan exiles would not resort to violence or do anything to disrupt Beijing 2008 Olympics scheduled to begin Aug 8.
Quoting what it claimed were China’s “internal party documents”, it alleged that Zhang Qingli, the party secretary of the Communist Party of China in charge of Tibet, has been talking about “cleaning out monasteries and strengthening administrative committees” to allow the party “absolute power” over Tibetans.
“Propaganda and education are our party’s greatest advantages. These are the most useful weapons with which to defend ourselves against the Dalai Lama group. So let the propaganda department work more actively to expose its plots,” the statement quoted Zhang as having said.
The Tibetan Solidarity Committee claimed that though the committee was in favour of “meaningful movements for Tibetan rights” not a single campaign was being carried out by it “to harm or disrupt the Olympic Games”.
In the statement it said Buddhist spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) and the Tibetan Parliament based in Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh were in favour of the Beijing Olympics and supported it “wholeheartedly”.
Referring to the stand taken by organisations like the Tibetan Youth Congress that opposed the Beijing Olympics, the statement said: “Tibetans function with the democratic charter in India and though groups like the Tibetan Youth Congress push for independence, a stand different from the CTA, we also recognise the fact that they do so non-violently and through peaceful means”.
It added: “These organisations are free to do as they will, provided they adhere to the laws of the land and put their point across through non-violence.”
The Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) saw protests against Chinese rule earlier this year. The Dalai Lama and many of his followers fled Chinese occupation of Tibet in 1959 and came to India where they live in exile. Around 100,000 Tibetans live across India.