Dalai Lama says he would resign

Spiritual leader appeals for calm in China, Tibet

BEIJING - The Dalai Lama threatened to resign yesterday as the leader of the Tibetan government-in-exile if the violence that has erupted in his homeland over the last week spirals out of control.

The spiritual leader of the Himalayan people made the statement on the day China's top leadership lashed out at him, charging that he has orchestrated Tibet's worst anti-China riots in two decades to sabotage August's Beijing Olympics.

"Please help stop violence from Chinese side and also from Tibetan side," the Dalai Lama pleaded before reporters in Dharamsala, India, the base of his government. "If things become out of control then my only option is to completely resign."

Although few people believe the man revered by followers as a god king is prepared step down, there is a sense that his own advocacy of nonviolence and compromise with the Chinese government has run up against a younger generation of Tibetans looking for a new way out of the long-standing impasse with Beijing.

"His holiness is not young. Time is running out for Tibet. If China keeps on doing what it's [been] doing for the last 50 years, there is this thinking from the young that maybe his holiness' patience is not the solution," said Dalha Tsering, campaign coordinator for the Tibetan community in Britain. "That, however, doesn't mean their allegiance is minimizing; all it means is they are frustrated."

Chinese troops seized control of Tibet in 1950. The Dalai Lama, who fled the region after a failed rebellion against Beijing in 1959, says he is not seeking independence for his homeland but greater autonomy within China for the Tibetan people.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao accused him of hypocrisy yesterday but left open the door for dialogue if the Dalai Lama recognized Tibet as part of China and not support an independence movement in Taiwan, which Beijing maintains is part of China.

"You should not only look at what he says, but what he does," Wen said, who maintained that Chinese authorities have reacted with extreme restraint to the riots in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa and have long worked to spur the Tibetan economy and support its culture and people.

Critics say China has restricted media coverage of the sometimes brutal security measures it has used to suppress pro-Tibet demonstrations.

"I know a relative who was shot three times because he was holding a Dalai Lama photo and marching toward the army," Tsering said. "If the world doesn't speak up, it will be another Burma," which is also known as Myanmar.

Despite Wen's charge that the Tibetan leader was seeking to sabotage the Beijing Olympics, the Dalai Lama early this week said that China deserves to host the Olympics and that the Games should not be boycotted.

As Chinese military fanned out across western China in areas populated with Tibetans and began making arrests after violence broke out Friday, sympathy rallies spread in and outside of China.

Chinese state television reported yesterday that 100 people had turned themselves in to police for their roles in "beating, smashing, looting and arson." This followed a midnight deadline issued by authorities for rioters to surrender themselves in exchange for more lenient treatment.

In India yesterday, more than 2,000 people gathered and called for a United Nations investigation into the reported killings of protesters by Chinese security forces. In Brussels, several hundred demonstrators rallied outside the headquarters of the European Union, some waving flags that read "Stop Beijing Olympics game of death."

Critics of China's actions in Tibet say they are disappointed that the International Olympic Committee has not done more to hold China accountable.

The rights group Reporters Without Borders called on world leaders to boycott the opening ceremonies of the Olympics.

As the fallout from the Tibetan protests continues to trouble Beijing, another fire is burning in its backyard. Taiwan is holding a presidential election Saturday amid debate over whether the island should hold a referendum supporting membership in the United Nations under its own name.