CHINA/TIBET: China's communist authorities are intensifying a campaign of repression against Tibetan Buddhists in an effort to destroy their religion and undermine the influence of the Dalai Lama, who is considered their spiritual leader, according to a study just published, writes Lynne O'Donnell in London.
The International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington-based interest group chaired by actor Richard Gere, details summary executions and torture of Tibetan religious leaders, as well as the demolition of homes and learning centres in a widening crackdown on religion in the Tibetan regions of China.
Restrictions on worship had been tightened in recent years, the report said, as Chinese authorities increasingly interfered with traditional Buddhist rituals, such as the choice of reincarnations, and promoted interpretations of Tibetan history and Buddhist learning approved by the central government.
One of the major aims of the stepped-up campaign was to separate the religion from Tibetan national identity as Beijing was increasingly concerned with eradicating rivals to the supremacy of the Communist Party, according to the report, published in recent days.
"The Chinese Communist Party is extremely afraid of those religious activities which are independent of government control," Chinese exile and founder of the New-York based group, Human Rights in China, Mr Xiao Qiang, said in the report.
Throughout China, Buddhists had been forced, like Christians, to set up clandestine prayer and study groups to circumvent the anti-religion campaign, the report said, adding that organised religions were viewed by authorities as dangerous superstitions incompatible with the atheist state.
The report comes as Chinese officials appear to have stepped up their efforts outside China to undermine the Dalai Lama's international influence as a respected religious leader and winner of the Nobel peace prize.
He is increasingly accused of scheming to "split" Tibet, which was invaded by the People's Liberation Army in 1959, from the Chinese "motherland," and has regularly been called a terrorist, most recently by Chinese officials in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, who said anti-terrorism exercises in Tibet last November were aimed at countering the terrorist threat posed by the Dalai Lama and his followers.
During the Dalai Lama's recent international tour, threats of varying degrees were issued from Beijing in order to dissuade public figures from meeting him. Shanghai threatened, for instance, to break off its "sister city" relationship with Liverpool if councillors met with the Dalai Lama - which they did without repercussion.
Despite Beijing's claims to the contrary, the Dalai Lama does not advocate independence for his former homeland, rather calling on the Chinese government to adhere to its 1950 pledge to grant the country autonomy "in all matters except foreign relations and national defence".
Efforts by his government-in-exile, which is based in the Indian hill station of Dharamsala, to open negotiations with Beijing on the status of Tibet within China, have stalled, and some Chinese officials have said the death of the Dalai Lama, (69), would solve the "Tibet problem".