Exiled spiritual leader says Chinese-ruled Tibet hell on earth

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama accused China of having brought "hell on earth" to his homeland in a speech yesterday on the sensitive 50th anniversary of a failed uprising.

As Chinese authorities deployed a massive security force across the Tibetan plateau to prevent protests, he demanded "meaningful autonomy" for the region in a speech at his exile base in northern India.

Residents of Tibet's capital, Lhasa, reported no protests yesterday morning but - as in other Tibetan areas of China - it appeared to be partly because armed soldiers and police were patrolling the streets in a show of force.

The Dalai Lama said China had brought "untold suffering and destruction" to the Himalayan region in a wave of repressive campaigns since the uprising on March 10, 1959 that forced him to flee.

"These thrust Tibetans into such depths of suffering and hardship that they literally experienced hell on earth," he said, adding they caused the deaths of "hundreds of thousands" of his people.

"Even today Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear," he said. "Their religion, culture, language, identity are near extinction. The Tibetan people are regarded like criminals, deserving to be put to death."

The 73-year-old Dalai Lama retains enormous support among the roughly six million devoutly Buddhist Tibetans who live in China, despite Chinese efforts to demonise him.

Authorities say he wants independence for his homeland. He denies this, insisting that he wants greater autonomy within China and an end to repression.

The Dalai Lama voiced frustration that repeated rounds of talks between the India-based Tibetan government-in-exile and Chinese officials have yielded no progress.

"And quite apart from the current process of Sino-Tibetan dialogue having achieved no concrete result, there has been brutal crackdown on the Tibetan protests that shook the whole of Tibet since March last year," he said in his speech, broadcast via the internet to exiles and supporters worldwide.

But he resisted pressure to radicalise his campaign against China, sticking by his "middle way" policy - a non-violent campaign for autonomy.

"We Tibetans are looking for legitimate and meaningful autonomy, an arrangement that would enable Tibetans to live within the framework of the People's Republic of China," he said.

"I have no doubt that the justice of Tibet's cause will prevail."

Peaceful protests led by Buddhist monks in Lhasa on last year's anniversary erupted four days later into anti-Chinese rioting that swept into other parts of western China with Tibetan populations.

Tibetan exiles say more than 200 people died when Chinese security forces clamped down following the unrest. Authorities deny this, saying that "rioters" were responsible for 21 deaths.

China has sought to seal Tibet and adjacent Tibetan-populated regions from independent observers and foreign reporters. Foreign tourists are banned from visiting Tibet this month, travel agencies have told AFP, although the government insists the region remains open.

"Armed police with guns are at the intersections," a Han Chinese woman who works at a Lhasa hotel said by telephone.

"People don't feel nervous because the police are here."

Police yesterday turned away AFP reporters who attempted to visit the La Jia monastery in a remote region of Qinghai province bordering Tibet.

They were escorted from nearby La Jia town, which is about 300 kilometres south of the provincial capital Xining.

The reporters saw checkpoints and armed security forces on the roads. Last year's unrest deeply angered China's leaders as they prepared for the Beijing Olympics in August, and they responded with a huge military crackdown across Tibet that triggered condemnation around the world. Signalling Beijing's lingering concern, Chinese President Hu Jintao invoked one of China's proudest nationalist symbols, the Great Wall, in a call on Monday to end Tibetan separatism.

China has ruled Tibet since 1951 after sending in troops to "liberate" the region the previous year.