The Tibetan leader says that persistent ‘repression’ has been ongoing for the past 50 years since the revolt. The government in Beijing described the allegation as pure humbug. Half a century after his escape from Tibet and exile in India, the Dalai Lama lashed against the government in Beijing and reported that the campaigns and violent repression by China against the Tibetan people have made the country a ‘hell on earth.’

In a speech broadcast on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the failed 1959 uprising against Chinese occupation, the political and spiritual leader of Tibetans dismissed Beijing’s policy in the region and stressed that the solution to the conflict should be through a ‘meaningful autonomy.’

“These 50 years have brought untold suffering and destruction to the land and the people of Tibet. Even today, Tibetans in Tibet are living in constant fear, and the Chinese authorities are suspicious of them continuously,” said the Dalai Lama who was just 23 years old when he fled Lhasa, the capital of Tibet.

The leader also warned that Tibetan religion, culture and people’s identity are ‘near extinction.’ This was immediately refuted by the governor of Tibet, Champa Phuntsok. In a statement by the official Chinese agency Xinhua, the Chinese government labeled the allegations as pure lies, and said that the Tibetan population is far from extinction and has, in fact, doubled in 50 years.

The uprising of 1959 led to more than 100,000 Tibetans into exile. The vast majority fled to India, thereafter making the city of Dharamsala as headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile. In this village at the foot of the Himalayas, there have been various occasions when thousands of people took to the streets to shout “Free Tibet!”

There have also been protests in New Delhi, Kathmandu, Seoul, and Canberra. In Lhasa, Chinese authorities have tightened security. Last year, coinciding with the anniversary of the uprising, a revolt in Tibet was severely repressed. The Dalai Lama called the riots the worst in 20 years, and the ‘brutal’ response from China.

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Via The Huffington Post