Dalai Lama renews autonomy call

The Dalai Lama speaking in Dharamsala on 8 March

The Dalai Lama says China is driving the Tibetan culture to "extinction"

The Dalai Lama has repeated his demand for "legitimate and meaningful autonomy" for Tibet.

His call came in a message on the 50th anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Tibet's exiled spiritual leader said independence from China was not the answer. He also accused China of creating a climate of fear in Tibet.

He said hundreds of thousands of Tibetans had been killed, and thousands of places of worship destroyed.

The Dalai Lama's message came five decades after a bloody uprising against Chinese troops in Lhasa that led, a week later, to his flight into exile in India.

China says its troops freed Tibetans from slavery in a feudal society. It is planning to mark 28 March - the day in 1959 on which the Communist Party dissolved the existing local government in Tibet - as Serfs' Emancipation Day.

The Dalai Lama said the two sides needed to work for "mutual benefit".

"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," the exiled leader said.

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

'Constant fear'

The Dalai Lama paid tribute to all those who had died since 1959, including victims of last year's deadly protests in Lhasa that spilled over into other ethnic Tibetan regions.

TIBET DIVIDE
Police patrol Ganzi prefecture in China's Sichuan Province (9 March)
China says Tibet was always part of its territory
Tibet enjoyed long periods of autonomy before the 20th Century
China launched a military assault in 1950
Opposition to Chinese rule led to a bloody uprising which began on 10 March 1959
Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, fled days later and crossed into India on 31 March 1959

The Tibet issue: China's view
The Tibet issue: Tibetan view

"Even today Tibetans in Tibet live in constant fear and the Chinese authorities remain constantly suspicious of them," he said from his seat in exile in India's Dharamsala.

Tibet's religion, culture, language and identity were "nearing extinction", he said, and Chinese development was devastating the Tibetan environment and way of life.

He repeated an accusation that China has killed "hundreds of thousands of his people".

"Many infrastructural developments... which seem to have brought progress to Tibetan areas were really done with the political objective of Sinicising Tibet," he added.

China has always denied any mass killings of Tibetans.

Referring to his "Middle Way approach" - offering to accept Chinese sovereignty in Tibet in return for genuine autonomy - the 73-year-old leader expressed disappointment that China had "not responded appropriately to our sincere efforts".

But he said the two sides should "look to the future and work for our mutual benefit".

"Fulfilling the aspirations of the Tibetan people will enable China to achieve stability and unity," he added.

'Expected sabotage'

The latest round of stop-start talks with Beijing last November concluded with China condemning the Tibetans' proposals as a bid for "disguised independence".

And the BBC's James Reynolds in Beijing says it is very difficult to see where progress can happen at the moment.

In a separate statement, the Tibetan government-in-exile pledged to continue to push the "Middle Way approach" but said the continuation of contact depended solely on China.

Thousands of Chinese troops and paramilitary police are said to have been deployed in Tibetan-populated regions amid fears of fresh violence on the sensitive anniversary.

Campaign groups have already reported some unrest in areas around Tibet. China does not allow foreign journalists unrestricted access to Tibet or restive areas surrounding it, making it extremely difficult to verify these reports.

Beijing says it has tightened its border controls in preparation for "expected sabotage activities by the Dalai Lama clique".

On Monday, in a sign that the Chinese government's stance on Tibet is unlikely to soften, President Hu Jintao called for a "Great Wall" against Tibetan separatism.

"We must build up a Great Wall in our fight against separatism and safeguard the unity of the motherland, and push Tibet's basic stability toward long-term security," state television quoted him as saying.