Chinese official media has accused the Dalai Lama of supporting the self-immolations of Buddhist monks and nuns, saying his supporters were busy shaping the story of the victims being dead for ‘Tibetan Independence’.
The state run ‘Global Times’ in a write up titled 'Self-burnings drama shows Dalai Lama's desperation', said 'all the victims (Nine monks and two nuns who committed self immolations) are avid believers of the Dalai Lama's separatist thoughts’.
"As the public is still mourning their deaths, the Dalai clique was busy shaping the story the victims died for Tibet Independence," it said.
"In less than an hour after the incidents, pictures of the scenes and the victims were widely distributed by the Dalai Lama group", it said adding that the Tibetan spiritual leader has special prayers in his exile in Dharmashala ‘with the aim to support the victims’.
"At the ceremony, also making an appearance was the head of the separatist government (Lobsang Sangay) who encouraged Tibetan people to pay homage for the dead and organise demonstrations against the Chinese government. The separatist government also made a brief visit to the US, asking for support", it said.
The separatist government claims that it ‘fully respects the immolators' decision to kill themselves,’ and calls for more people to donate their lives for the independence of Tibet, it said.
"Except for a couple of religious denominations, most belief systems advocate the value of life, the non-violence approach, which includes the concept of anti-suicide. Buddhism ethics make it explicit to advise people to refrain from taking life (including one's own). As a spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama is in full support of self-immolation, which is no difference than advocating taking life. This is downright alarming and borderline terrorist behaviour," the write up said.
"It is not hard to see the motives of the ultra-active interference by Dalai clique on the incidents. Under such a climate, the ‘Free-Tibet’ movement becomes inopportune. The strong and controversial reactions from the Dalai clique on the self-immolation issue, in a way, helped with publicity," it said.
"And thirdly, it is Dalai Lama's wishful thinking that publicity would get him back to negotiations with Beijing, as to prevent such incidents from happening we need to work together with Beijing to resume the dialogue on extreme-autonomy of the region".
"To sum up, the effort of the Dalai Lama is by no means a show of his power and influence, quite the contrary, but a demonstration of his desperation and fragility", it said.