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Journalism of Courage
DHARAMSALA, Feb 8: The Dalai Lama, religious and temporal leader of Tibetans, has assailed the Chinese authorities for intensifying the repressive activities against the Tibetans. He said this while addressing the Tibetan refugees who reached Dharamsala during the months of December and February.
The Chinese authorities, he said, had banned display of his photographs in monasteries and temples. They also forced members of religious institutions into signing documents carrying vehement denunciation against his name. Monks and nuns had been subjected to expulsions, brutal beatings, imprisonment and so on.
The Dalai Lama said the fate and whereabouts of a large number of them continued to remain unknown. The ban on his photographs has also been imposed on lay people and specially Tibetan cadres working in Chinese offices. He said their residences were randomly searched and, if the photographs found in their possession, they were subjected to expulsion from jobs.
The Dalai Lama further said that in the past, China had branded him as a 8220;bloody killer8221; and 8220;fox in a monk8217;s robe,8221; and in the recent past, he had been branded as 8220;counter-revolutionary,8221; 8220;splitist8221; and so on. But these allegations made no difference to him at all, he said.
The Dalai Lama said that he had often been saddened and troubled by reports of Tibetans being subjected to detention, beatings and imprisonments after having been found in possession of his pictures. He said on such occasions he found himself helpless of doing anything else besides praying.
He said that the Tibetans under the Chinese occupation were denied fundamental freedoms, their human rights and right of equality.
