China says Tibet talks "only a beginning," onus on Dalai Lama

May 6, 2008, 10:11 GMT

Beijing - China on Tuesday said talks on Tibet with envoys of the Dalai Lama were 'only a beginning' and urged the exiled Tibetan Buddhist leader to show more 'sincerity.'

'I want to stress that the current contact is only a beginning,' foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang said when asked about weekend talks between Chinese officials and two envoys of the Dalai Lama.

'As long as the Dalai side shows sincerity, especially in its actions, then the contact will continue,' Qin told reporters.

Qin did not explain what China wanted the Dalai Lama to do to show sincerity.

The government continues to accuse him of pursuing independence for Tibet, despite his frequent public renouncement of independence in favour of maximum autonomy for Tibetans within China.

State media on Monday accused the Dalai Lama of 'monstrous crimes,' continuing the government's tough rhetoric against him.

The 'Dalai clique' wanted to 'confuse public opinion and incite ethnic hatred' as part of a plan to split China, the official Tibet Daily newspaper said in a commentary.

'Following the March 14 incident in Lhasa, the Dalai has not only refused to admit his monstrous crimes but has also continued to perpetuate fraud,' the commentary said, referring to rioting in the capital of China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

China said 18 civilians and one police officer died in the March 14 rioting in Lhasa.

The Tibetan government in exile, based in the Indian town of Dharamsala, said 203 people had died since March in widespread unrest in Tibetan areas of China, most of them Tibetans shot by Chinese police.

On Monday, the government in exile rejected as 'baseless' the latest Chinese accusations that the Dalai Lama was behind the violence in Tibet.

'We do not accept it. We ask them (China) to prove the allegations against the Dalai Lama to the world community,' Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the government in exile, told the PTI news agency.

The talks in China's southern city of Shenzhen were the first meeting between the two sides in nearly a year.

They followed international pressure on China to reopen dialogue after Beijing's crackdown on Tibetan protesters, which has marred its preparations for the Olympics.

The Chinese government has engaged in six rounds of dialogue with representatives of the Dalai Lama since 2002, but no progress has been reported. The previous round was held in June.