China slams Dalai Lama, to talk to his envoys

A Buddhist monk puts on his robes before the start of a prayer session inside a temple at the Rongbo Monastery, the world's highest monastery at an altitude of over 5,100 metres (16,700 feet) and located at the foot of Mount Everest in the Tibet Autonomous Region May 3, 2008. Mount Everest is also known as Qomolangma. The Tibetan government-in-exile said on Friday that envoys of the Dalai Lama will travel to China on May 3 to meet the government over the crisis in Tibet, after a crackdown on protests against Chinese rule in Tibet and international diplomatic chorus earlier this year urged dialogue. (REUTERS/David Gray)

SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - China kept up a barrage of criticism against the Dalai Lama on Sunday, even as envoys of Tibet's exiled spiritual leader went into fence-mending talks with officials, the first since unrest in the mountain region.

The eruption of Tibetan riots in March and China's immediate crackdown have prompted anti-China protests that disrupted the international leg of the Olympic torch relay and led to calls for Western leaders to boycott August's Beijing Games.

State news agency Xinhua said Chinese government officials would meet the Dalai Lama's envoys on Sunday. It did not reveal the venue, but the Tibetan government-in-exile said the talks would be in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen, near Hong Kong.

Security was tight outside the state guest house where the talks were expected to be held.

Xinhua identified the Chinese negotiators as Zhu Weiqun and Sitar, both of whom are vice-ministers of the Communist Party's united front work and responsible for winning over religious leaders and ethnic minorities.

Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, the Dalai Lama's representatives in Washington and Switzerland respectively, arrived in China on Saturday.

A commentary in the Tibet Daily, mouthpiece of the Tibet regional government, accused the Dalai Lama of being a "loyal tool of international anti-Chinese forces."

It said the Dalai Lama was "colluding with international anti-Chinese forces to spread rumors and slander to disrupt and sabotage the Olympic torch relay."

They "performed utterly shameless anti-China chorus after chorus," the commentary said, adding that the Dalai Lama is the leader of a political group plotting to split Tibet from China.

EXPECTATIONS LOW

Some analysts said the condemnation suggested China was in no mood to compromise following riots in Tibet which have stoked Western criticism of its rule there.

The Dalai Lama, winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize, has said he objects to violence and supports the Beijing Olympics. China says he is insincere.

China "hoped ... the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China," stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks," Xinhua said, quoting an unnamed official.

But Chhime Chhoekyapa, a senior aide to the Dalai Lama, said the exiled government "can't have great expectations" from the talks.

There have been six rounds of dialogue between China and the Dalai Lama's envoys since 2002, with no breakthrough.

China proposed the talks last month after Western governments urged it to open new dialogue with the Dalai Lama, who says he wants a high level of autonomy, not independence, for the predominantly Buddhist Himalayan homeland he fled in 1959.

China says the rioting in Tibet's capital, Lhasa, in March killed 18 "innocent civilians" and a police officer. It has not specified how many, if any, protesters have died but says troops used maximum restraint and avoided using lethal weapons.

Exiled groups say many more Tibetans have died in the crackdown. The Tibetan government-in-exile estimated this week 203 Tibetans might have died in the unrest since March 10.

(Writing by Benjamin Kang Lim)

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