CHINA:THE DALAI Lama claimed yesterday that Beijing was planning the mass settlement of a million ethnic Chinese people in Tibet after the Olympics with the aim of swamping and diluting Tibetan culture and identity.
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader also claimed that some of Asia's most important rivers which flow from the Tibetan plateau are being polluted and diminished by careless industrialisation and unplanned irrigation.
The Dalai Lama made the claims in an interview after a meeting yesterday with British prime minister Gordon Brown at Lambeth Palace in London.
He said the talks had been detailed and the prime minister had been helpful "in spite of his difficulties". The prime minister's office said the discussion focused on talks due next month on Tibet's future between Tibetan representatives and Beijing officials.
Mr Brown is said to have stressed the importance of the Dalai Lama's pledge to oppose violence, not seek Tibetan independence, nor support a boycott of the Olympics.