WASHINGTON (AFP)–A U.S. senator influential on foreign policy said Monday he was disappointed with China for “unfairly” accusing Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of masterminding protests in the Himalayan territory. Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., the ranking Republican in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, also challenged China to allow journalists and diplomats full access to Tibet to determine whether Beijing allegedly overreacted to the protests.
“I am particularly disappointed that officials in Beijing have chosen to attack the Dalai Lama and unfairly blame him for the protests,” Lugar said in a statement.
“I am aware of no credible evidence that he encouraged or instigated the protests, which occurred across a broad area of the Tibetan Autonomous Region and Tibetan areas of China,” he said.
China has published an anonymous confession from a Tibetan protester as part of a dossier of “evidence” it said proved the Dalai Lama and his government-in- exile were behind the unrest against Beijing’s rule of the Himalayan region.
Lugar noted that the Dalai Lama had deplored the violence and his call to cease violent activities, saying they appeared to have been heeded by most Tibetans in the autonomous region and elsewhere.
“I have met the Dalai Lama several times. I know him to be a man of peace. Contrary to repeated Chinese assertions, he has affirmed he does not favor an independent Tibet, but rather a Tibet with genuine autonomy as part of China,” the senator said.
He urged the Chinese leadership to work with the Dalai Lama to seek a ” mutually agreeable and peaceful solution” to the Tibet issue.
Beijing says rioters had killed 18 civilians and two police officers in the protests. Exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from the Chinese crackdown at 135-140 Tibetans, with another 1,000 injured and many detained.
Lugar also asked Beijing “to open up more fully” to allow journalists, diplomats and other independent observers into Tibet to determine the background to the protests.
It is “to judge” whether Chinese authorities allegedly overreacted to incidents of looting, burning and attacks on individuals and whether they were detaining and lodging charges of violence against monks and others who had expressed their views peacefully, he said.
“Greater access would also be consistent with China’s promise to give wider freedoms to foreign journalists in the period before the 2008 Olympics,” Lugar said.
