US House Speaker urges international probe into Tibet unrest
©AFP - Manan Vatsyayana
DHARAMSHALA (AFP) - US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Friday called for an international probe into the causes of deadly unrest in Tibet but added she was not seeking a boycott of the Beijing Olympics.
"We call upon the international community to have an independent outside investigation on accusations made by the Chinese government that His Holiness (the Dalai Lama) was the instigator of violence in Tibet," she said after flying into the hill town of Dharamshala, seat of Tibet's government-in-exile.
"This investigation is to make sure there is no association between His Holiness and violence in Tibet," said Pelosi who was greeted by cheering crowds of refugees and banners proclaiming "American-Tibet Friendship."
Pelosi also said she was "not calling for any boycott of the Olympic Games," echoing similar statements by the Dalai Lama, who has denied orchestrating the nearly two weeks of upheaval in his homeland.
©AFP
But the "world is watching" events in China, added Pelosi, one of the sharpest critics of Beijing's human rights record, who was making the first high-level US visit to the Dalai Lama since the unrest erupted in Tibet.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Thursday said Beijing had "plenty of evidence that proves that these incidents were organised, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique."
But the Dalai Lama, who has repeatedly insisted he wants autonomy and not independence for the region he fled in 1959 after a failed uprising against Beijing's rule, has replied that the Chinese are welcome to send a team to Dharamshala to "investigate thoroughly" their allegations.
China, keen to put its best face forward ahead of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August, has been faced by the worst rioting against its rule in Tibet in nearly 20 years and has poured security forces into the vast Himalayan region to suppress the unrest.
The Dalai Lama welcomes Nancy Pelosi
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