Dalai Lama blamed for Tibetans' immolations

As the numbers of self-immolation protests in Tibet went up, coinciding with the recent leadership change in China, Beijing today accused Dalai Lama group of “instigating and masterminding” suicides in order to tarnish its image.

“For any country or any religion, people’s life is very precious, but some people, in order to gain their political gains, even go as far as to glorifying self-immolations”, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Hua Chunying told a media briefing here on Wednesday.“

They even masterminded it and instigated such behaviours for their political purposes”, she said answering a question on increasing number of self immolations in the recent days during and after the 18th Communist Party Congress to select new leadership.

More than eight such attempts, protesting the Chinese rule and seeking the return of Dalai from exile, have been reported since November 8. About 80 cases of self immolations have been reported during the past few months.

The suicides appeared unabated as the new leadership headed by Xi Jinping took charge. It is not clear yet whether the new leadership would strike a reconciliatory tone by re-opening the stalled dialogue with Dalai Lama to ease the tensions.

Back channel talks failed to make headway despite Dalai Lama’s acceptance of Tibet as part of China. Chinese officials say that his demand for integration of all Tibetan prefectures and departure of settlers from outsides were not acceptable.