•Chinese President Hu Jintao. Photo: Sun News Publishing

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China has described reports that it used force to quell riots organized by Tibetans seeking independence as false, stressing that a section of the foreign media engaged on deliberate propaganda to expose China to international hate.

Debunking allegations of human rights violation as it concern the violent protests that swept across Lhasa last week, the Chinese Consul General in Lagos, Nigeria told Daily Sun that the main objective of the organizers of the protests was to scuttle the Olympic games taking place in China. Guo Kun said “It is one of the ploy of Tibet’s Dalai Lama and his ‘foreign cronies’ to ruin the economic fortunes of China as the Olympic games is bound to boost the country’s economy.” “Why the riots now?” he asked rhetorically.

Kun accused the Dalai Lama and the monks that participated in the protests of violating their spiritual obligation to the people. “The Dalai Lama and the monks are spiritual leaders who owe the responsibility to promote peace and love across the country and not instigating riots and killing of innocent citizens.” Kun says the demand for independence by the Dalai Lama is informed by greed for power as well as the desire to re-enact the slave era of Tibet when the leaders practiced slavery and enslaved the mass of the people. He challenged the Dalai Lama and his supporters to tell the world the true history of China-Tibet relations as contained in the agreement signed in 1956.

Kun was vehement when he said Beijing has not in anyway reneged on the agreement. “For example, China agreed to respect and identify with the spiritual leader, respect the culture of Tibet and give technical support to the people and this is being observed.”

Kun says contrary to the impression being created by the Dalai Lama that Tibetans are not getting their fair share of the national cake, Beijing had always ensured that Tibet receive equal treatment with other regions. “This is despite the fact that it has a very small population of about 2.8 million. It has an autonomous government with a Tibetan as the governor. Beijing has opened up the region, providing it with social amenities including education.”

Kun wants the international community to remember that China is a member the United Nations human rights body and therefore would not for any reason violate the human rights of its citizens, including Tibet. The envoy says the understanding of human rights depends on the perception of the interpreter but even then “the biggest issue involved in human rights is the right of citizens to good living and Chinese are living well despite the numerous development problems the government is facing.

The state of human rights in China today cannot be compared with the situation in the 1980s”
Kuns revealed through videos of the scene of the Tibet protests that some of the photographs beamed to the world by a section of the foreign media were not true after all. Fro example, some of the scenes were found to be incidents that took place in New Delhi and Nepal and not in Lhasa.
Meanwhile, more than 660 people have turned themselves in to police around Tibet, Chinese state media has said.

Xinhua news agency reported 280 people in Lhasa had handed themselves in by late Tuesday, and earlier reports said 381 people in Sichuan had surrendered. China is trying to end the biggest protests by Tibetans in 20 years. Meanwhile, a group of foreign reporters has been allowed into Lhasa for the first time since the violence began.