China blames overseas Tibetan groups for Sichuan unrest

China has blamed overseas Tibetan groups for orchestrating recent unrest in Sichuan province and has accused exiled Tibetan religious leader the Dalai Lama of lending his backing to the 16 self-immolation protests that have taken place in the past year.

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Weimin said on Tuesday pro-Tibet independence groups had “masterminded and incited” the protests and two clashes between Tibetans and police in Sichuan last month, which left at least two people dead and dozens injured.

“We believe the series of incidents are obviously masterminded and incited by someone from behind the scenes,” he said, claiming that “mobs” involved in clashes on January 23 and January 24 “shouted slogans of Tibet independence”.

He accused the Dharamsala-based Tibetan Youth Congress of “initiating a signing campaign among domestic religious believers calling upon Tibetans to self-immolate to protest and asking the signatories to self-immolate at different places at different times.”

“Some overseas organisations and Tibet independence groups”, he said, “issued information distorting the facts quite immediately following incidents, which is quite surprising. They also made remarks attacking the Chinese government’s religious and ethnic policies.”

He hit out at the exiled Tibetan religious leader the Dalai Lama, who China accuses of being a “splittist”, for encouraging the violence.

“During a sermon ritual, the Dalai Lama received religious believers from inside China and preached that actions are more important than praying,” he said, referring to the immolations.

The Dalai Lama, however, has said he only wants “genuine autonomy” in Tibet – and not independence. He has also said he did not encourage self-immolation protests, which he, however, blamed on a “cultural genocide”.

Mr. Liu blamed a "handful of criminals" for clashes which took place in the two Sichuan counties of Luhuo and Seda on January 23 and 24. Exiled Tibetan groups, however, said police had fired upon a crowd of Tibetans, who were protesting the detention of locals who had circulated leaflets calling on Tibetans to not celebrate the Chinese New Year, which fell on January 23.

Mr. Liu said “criminals stormed some civilian facilities” and “attacked police on duty leading to several police injuries”. “I think in any country,” he added, “attacking police is a serious crime and should be punished by law.”