Dalai Lama calls on China to alter approach to Tibet

TIBET’S exiled Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, pointed to what he called China’s “ruthless policy” as prompting the recent deaths of Tibetan monks who set themselves on fire in protest.

The Nobel Peace Prize laureate called on Beijing to change its approach to the Himalayan region. “For their own interest, not just the interest for a certain sort of problem here and there, but for the whole country’s future, they have to act with a realistic policy,” he said yesterday at a Tokyo hotel, while in Japan to visit victims of the March tsunami.

At least nine Tibetans have self-immolated since March in protest of Chinese rule, and five of them have died of their injuries. The self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile has described the self-immolations as tragic acts and called for the international community to urge Beijing to open a dialogue on its policies in Tibet.

“The local leader must look what’s the real causes of death,” the Dalai Lama said of the Chinese government. “It’s their own sort of wrong policy, ruthless policy, illogical policy.”