NEW DELHI, India: Tibetans struggling against Chinese rule will never be repressed “however brutal and violent” the means used by Beijing and Tibet’s future status will only be settled through negotiations, the Dalai Lama said in a statement released Thursday.

The exiled Buddhist spiritual and temporal leader of 6 million Tibetans inside and outside Tibet also repeated a call for anti-Chinese demonstrations in his homeland to be peaceful.

Ours is a nonviolent struggle and it must remain so,” the Dalai Lama said in the statement which he was to formally issue on Friday to mark the 30th anniversary of a bloody 1959 uprising he led against Chinese rule.

The Dalai Lama and tens of thousands of his followers fled to India to escape arrest by Chinese troops and he has been living ever since in the northern Himalayan foothill town of Dharamsala, the seat of a self-proclaimed Tibetan government in exile.

In his statement, the Dalai Lama called on his followers to mark the uprising anniversary by a remembering more than I million Tibetans he claims have died since China occupied Tibet in 1951, including those killed by police in three days of pro-independence protests earlier this week in the capital of Lhasa.

The suffering to which our people have been subjected during these decades mark the darkest period in our long history,” he said.

China says 12 people died in the unrest this week in Lhasa the worst since the 1959 insurrection and Beijing imposed martial law on Tibet as 75 and said the protests were brutally suppressed by Chinese security forces.

No amount of repression however brutal and violent can silence the voice of freedom and justice,” the Dalai Lama said.

The killing imprisonment and torture of peaceful demonstrators Or persons who express unsanctioned opinions is morally reprehensible and a violation of human rights. It can never be justified no matter where in the world it occurs, he said.

The Dalai Lama said the future of Tibet can only be resolved “peacefully through negotiation” and reaffirmed his willingness to hold talks with Beijing offer Chinese leaders accepted last year.

“Although I proposed that the negotiations should start in January in Geneva, he said, “The Chinese have for one reason or another delayed commencement of the talks.”

He said the negotiations should be held on the basis of a proposal he made last year for China to relinquish control over Tibet except for foreign affairs and, for a period of time, defense.

The Tibetan leader has declined to endorse calls for Tibet’s complete independence because he believes that by adopting such a rigid stand, China would refuse to negotiate with him, ending his hope of preserving Tibetan language, culture and the Buddhist religion amid a massive influx of ethnic Han Chinese.

His stand has stoked dissatisfaction among a large number of Tibetan refugees in India.

“I am aware of the deep felt disappointment of many Tibetans on the stand we have taken,” the Dalai Lama said.

“As I have stated before the final decision will be left to the Tibetan people themselves to take.

Article extracted from this publication >>  March 17, 1989