Members of Tibetan Parliament-in-exile on Thursday (March 30) questioned the reasoning behind a banned separatist militant group warning the Dalai Lama not to speak against China during his visit to Assam next month.
The warning was issued in an open letter by United Liberation Front of Asom - Independent (ULFA-I), an outlawed separatist group fighting in the country's remote northeast for an independent homeland, early this week.
"If you want to visit Assam, we have a special condition. You will not make any personal or public comments against China from Assam's soil," said the letter written by ULFA-I chairman Abhijeet Asom.
"China and Assam are friendly neighbours who share long-standing linguistic and cultural ties. We will not tolerate it if you act as a spokesperson for Indian sentiments from Assam's soil," it added.
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader will be visiting the northeastern states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh - a sensitive border region controlled by India but claimed by China - starting April 01.
Dalai Lama will be in Assam for three days before heading to the mountain town of Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh. His visit will conclude on April 12 in Itanagar city.
Despite a warning from Beijing that it would damage ties, India has decided to let Dalai Lama go ahead with his visit.
A trip by the Dalai Lama, whom the Chinese regard as a dangerous separatist, would ratchet up tensions at a time when New Delhi is at odds with China on strategic and security issues and unnerved by Beijing's growing ties with arch-rival Pakistan.
India's hosting of the Dalai Lama since he fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule has long irritated Beijing.
China has ruled Tibet with an iron fist since it was "peacefully liberated" by the People's Liberation Army in 1950.
China denies any repression in Tibet and says its rule has brought development to a once backward and poverty-stricken region.
0 comments: