Chinese police have arrested hundreds of people in western China after residents there called for the return of exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, reports Friday.
Soldiers and police were dispatched to Lithang, an ethnically Tibetan part of Sichuan province, after locals gathered on Wednesday to celebrate a traditional horse festival, said rights group International Campaign for Tibet and Radio Free Asia (RFA).
The incident occurred when local Tibetan, Runggye Adak (53) was detained after speaking in public about the Dalai Lama and social issues, the reports said.
RFA said 200 people had been arrested but did not indicate if anyone had been released.
Police and an army station in Lithang denied knowledge of the incident when contacted by Agence France-Presse.
According to witnesses quoted by RFA, Runggye Adak climbed onto the festival stage and said: ”’If we cannot invite the Dalai Lama home, we will not have freedom of religion and happiness in Tibet.”’
Runggye Adak also called for the freedom of the Panchen Lama, Gendun Choekyi Nyima and Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche, a senior and respected lama from the area who is serving a life sentence for alleged involvement in bombing offences.
After his detention many Tibetans congregated to protest Runggye Adak’s arrest, prompting police to fire warning shots in the air to disperse the crowds, said the International Campaign for Tibet.
Gendun Choekyi Nyima disappeared with his parents at the age of six after he was recognised by the Dalai Lama, who is Tibet’s top religious figure, as the 11th Panchen Lama.
His whereabouts since then are unknown, and Beijing selected another boy — largely raised and educated in Beijing — for the role.
China sent troops into Tibet in 1951. The Dalai Lama later fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising and established a government-in-exile in Dharamsala. – AFP
