By Eric Talmadge
NARITA, Japan: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama said he supports China’s hosting of the Summer Olympics, but insisted Thursday nobody had the right to tell protesters demanding freedom for Tibet “to shut up.”
“We are not anti-Chinese. Right from the beginning, we supported the Olympic Games,” he told reporters outside Tokyo on a stopover on a trip to Seattle. “I really feel very sad the government demonizes me. I am just a human, I am not a demon.”
Protests have been held in cities around the world in a show of sympathy for Tibet, where anti-government riots erupted last month. The Olympic torch relay has faced massive demonstrations, most recently in San Francisco.
The Dalai Lama said the demonstrators had the right to their opinions, though he called for nonviolence.
“The expression of their feelings is up to them,” he said. “Nobody has the right to tell them to shut up. One of the problems in Tibet is that there is no freedom of speech.”
Chinese authorities have tightly restricted access to Tibet and Tibetan areas of western China, where protests also broke out. The sometimes violent anti-government demonstrations were the largest among Tibetans in almost two decades.
“Autonomy (in Tibet) is just in name, it is not sincerely implemented. The crisis is the expression of their (Tibetans’) deep regret,” he said.
The Chinese government responded harshly.
Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu repeated Chinese accusations that the Dalai Lama was “engaging in activities aimed at splitting China in the name of religion.”
Japan’s government has been relatively quiet about the violence in Tibet and, out of deference to Beijing, does not deal officially with the Dalai Lama.
It does, however, grant visas to the exiled Buddhist leader, who has visited Japan fairly frequently. Buddhism is one of Japan’s main religions, along with the indigenous Shinto faith.
More than a dozen Buddhist monks protested Wednesday in front of visiting journalists at a monastery in western China to call for the return of the exiled Tibetan leader.
Other protests have been held in Paris, London and San Francisco along the route of the Olympic torch relay, prompting speculation that it could be shortened or possibly canceled in some areas to avoid violence.
Officials in Indonesia said Thursday they will significantly shorten the torch’s route there because of security concerns.
The Dalai Lama insisted he was not behind the unrest, and called Chinese claims that he was the mastermind “a serious allegation.”
He said Beijing had reacted to the protests with “violent suppression.”
But he added that if the situation improves, he would even be willing to attend the Olympics’ opening ceremony.
“I personally want to enjoy the big ceremony,” he said.
The Dalai Lama has been living in exile in India since 1959.
