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__**Research**__**__:__** The Dalai Lama said that he would not instruct his followers inside Tibet to surrender before Chinese authorities, and he described feeling “helpless” in preventing what he feared could be an imminent blood bath. He endorsed the right to peaceful protest, accusing Beijing of carrying out “a rule of terror".

While the Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet, many younger Tibetans do not follow him on a crucial question -- whether Tibet should have genuine autonomy or independence from China. The young activists who have organized "Free Tibet" marches around the world demand independence for a homeland most of them have never seen. Born in exile, they reject the Dalai Lama's "middle way" of seeking "meaningful autonomy" -- not independence -- from China. The youth activists also call for an international boycott of the Beijing Olympics, something the Dalai Lama does not do. The Chinese government considers Tibet an autonomous province, but many Tibetans say it is autonomous in name only. The Dalai Lama says the Chinese often treat Tibetans as second-class citizens in their own land. He argues that Tibetans need full and genuine autonomy to protect their cultural heritage. The Chinese government rejects international calls that it talk with the [|Dalai Lama], insisting he is a "separatist" and that his "clique" masterminded protests that convulsed Tibet last week and have spread to three neighboring Chinese provinces. Tenzin Tsundue, a 32-year-old Tibetan activist and writer, said the Dalai Lama's demand for authentic autonomy from China was "wishful thinking." In a 2005 interview published by the Tibet Society of South Africa, Tenzin said it was "highly unlikely" China would ever make the changes called for by the Dalai Lama.

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"Because the return of the Dalai Lama to [|Tibet] would inspire and unite the Tibetans so powerfully, that there'd be a revolution, and China can't have that happen," Tenzin said. "His Holiness has frequently begged for autonomy -- but they will not budge, even though he was criticized for doing so by many of our youth for this compromise." The Dalai Lama was himself a young man when he was last in Tibet. He was forced into exile, along with about 80,000 others, in 1959 when the Chinese military put down an uprising. Tenzin is one of the leaders of a pro-independence march from Dharmasala, India to the border of Tibet. The walk, which they hope to complete just before the start of the Beijing Olympics in August, was stopped just as it began last week when Indian police arrested participants. The Tibetan youth movement does embrace the Dalai Lama's strategy of peaceful protests, he said. "On non-violent method, there's no disagreement with His Holiness," Tenzin said in a CNN interview last week. "There is this difference that I see, and especially among the younger generation of Tibetans who are saying, no compromise on independence." Tenzin's only visit to Tibet came when he went in without permission in 1997. Tenzin, then 22, was eventually caught by police, jailed for three months for being a "foreigner" and sent back to India. He later said he was taken by how much China had erased Tibetan culture from the region, with everything "Chinese in character or under Chinese control." Tenzin said in the 2005 interview that China was "smothering the Tibetan voice" by moving into Tibet thousands of Han Chinese, who make up more than 90 percent of Chinese citizens. The Dalai Lama, in denying the charge he was behind the recent outbreaks of violence in China, said that control of Tibetan culture by China fuels the protests. The "cultural genocide" of his people causes the deep resentment toward China that fuels Tibetan protests, he said. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday that China has "plenty of evidence proving" that Tibetan protests were "organized, premeditated, masterminded and incited" by the Dalai Lama's "clique." "The consistent claims made by the Dalai clique that they pursue, not independence, but peaceful dialogue, are nothing but lies," Wen said. In his own news conference Sunday, the Dalai Lama said "meaningful autonomy" for Tibet would protect its "ancient cultural heritage." Without autonomy, he said Tibetans would continue to be treated as "second class citizens in their own land." Still, the younger Tibetan exiles appear determined to press for independence.
 * [|Dalai Lama urges restraint]

The head of Tibet's Communist Party has warned of a "life and death struggle" with the Dalai Lama, as China struggles to bring an end to several days of protests in the Himalayan region. Zhang Qingli is quoted as telling a meeting of Tibetan government leaders they were involved in a battle mixed with "blood and fire" against when he called the "Dali clique." hinese Premier Wen Jiabao has accused Tibet's exiled spiritual leader of orchestrating protests against Chinese rule in Tibet that have turned violent. Chinese state media say at least 13 people were killed in riots in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa. The official Xinhua news agency says 105 people involved in Friday's riots have surrendered to police. Tibet's government-in-exile says at least 99 people have been killed in unrest over the past week. It says the death toll includes 19 Tibetans who were shot dead by security forces Tuesday in new protests in Gansu province. Human rights groups have released photographs that show Tibetans allegedly shot and killed by security forces in China's western province of Sichuan. The Center and the exiled Tibetan government based in India have reported further pro-independence protests in Qinghai, Gansu and Sichuan Tuesday and the Tibet Autonomous Region. Reports of those incidents do not appear to have been published in Chinese media and Chinese authorities have not allowed foreign journalists to confirm details of the protests. China has controlled Tibet since 1951. The Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled from Tibet to India in 1959, during a failed revolt against Chinese rule. China denounces the Dalai Lama as a crusader for independence, but he says he has campaigned for nothing more than true autonomy for his homeland.

Dharamsala, July 17: A senior Chinese official has stated that China is willing to talk to the Dalai Lama about his future and that of some of his supporters but not that of Tibet, according to media reports. Special Envoy Lodi Gyari during a meeting on July 1, 2008,with Du Qinglin, Vice Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference and Minister of the Central United Front Work Department. To his right is Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen while to the left of Du Qinglin is Executive Vice Minister Zhu Weiqun of the Central United Front Work Department. (Photo - CTA) “The central government will never discuss the future of Tibet with the Dalai Lama,” Dong Yunhu, the new director general of the information office of the Sate Council, China’s Cabinet, said Tuesday. “What we can discuss with him is his future and that of some of his supporters.” “I don’t think he is qualified to represent Tibet. If he ever did, it was before 1959,” Dong was quoted as saying. “They deny that Tibet is an inalienable part of China and demand autonomy for ‘Greater Tibet’. It means the Dalai Lama should rule all the land inhabited by Tibetans, nearly one-fourth of China, and Han Chinese should be moved out of those areas,” Dong added, saying that this was a position that was not acceptable to China. The exiled Tibetan leader and Tibetan people refute such assertions from the Chinese government. Thousands of Tibetans followed their leader the Dalai Lama into exile to take refuge in India in 1959 after a failed uprising against continuing Communist Chinese regime’s oppression in their homeland. Since then the Dalai Lama has been heading the Tibetan Government-in-exile from the Indian hill station of Dharamsala to restore Tibetan people’s freedom. Lately the Dalai Lama has advocated a “middle way approach” calling for a “real and meaningful” autonomy for Tibet within the framework of Chinese Constitution, a broad compromise many young Tibetans are not happy about. The Dalai Lama maintains it is one of his commitments to carry on the “responsibility to act as the free spokesperson of the Tibetans in their struggle for justice” and that it will “cease to exist once a mutually beneficial solution is reached between the Tibetans and Chinese”. For him Tibet issue is about the welfare of the Tibetan people and not about the fate of his own personal status and affairs or that of the Tibetans in exile. The political leadership of the Tibetan Diaspora has been directly elected by the general Tibetan populace and the Dalai Lama often describes his present role as more of a “semi-retired” one. He has also clearly and openly stated that he would immediately renounce all legitimate political authority vested in him once real and meaningful freedom would be restored for Tibetan people. Seven rounds of talks between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and that of the Chinese government, started since 2002, did not make any significant breakthrough. The latest seventh round of talks held in Beijing between July 1 and 2 was the first formal round of talks between the two sides after widespread unrest broke out in Tibet in March in which Tibetans in Tibet protested against Chinese rule and demanded the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet. The talks, however, made no headway on the status of Tibet as expected by the Tibetan leadership, forcing a senior Tibetan envoy to describe the outcome as “disappointing”. “I personally told my Chinese counterparts very candidly that if the talks do not make any tangible results, there is no point in wasting each other’s time,” Mr Lodi Gyari, the Dalai Lama’s Special Envoy, told reporters in Dharamsala following the two-day talks with Chinese counterparts. Nevertheless, the two sides have at least agreed to meet again later in October, once the Beijing Olympic Games would be far over. Many world leaders have routinely insisted China to hold result-orientated dialogue with the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. China Thursday made a more conflicting statement saying it was “sincere” about Tibet talks, rejecting accusations by a representative of the Dalai Lama that it was not serious about talks over the status of Tibet. “The central government is sincere about holding contact with the Dalai side,” foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao reportedly told reporters in Beijing. Liu was reacting to statement made by Kelsang Gyaltsen, an envoy of the Dalai Lama, on Tuesday at the European Parliament in Brussels. Mr Kelsang said, “We do not see any useful purpose in continuing the dialogue since there is obviously a lack of political will from the Chinese leadership to seriously address the issue of Tibet.” Although the Tibetan leader has repeatedly and publicly stated he is not seeking separation and independence of Tibet, China continues to vilify him as a “separatist” seeking Tibet’s independence. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his relentless non-violent movement for the peaceful resolution of Tibet’s issue through dialogue with the Chinese leadership.