Tibetan who shouted 'long live the Dalai Lama' convicted for trying to split China

The Associated PressPublished: November 1, 2007

BEIJING: A Tibetan nomad held for three months for shouting "long live the Dalai Lama" has been convicted on subversion charges, a local official and U.S.-based broadcaster said Friday.

Runggye Adak had been arrested after grabbing a microphone and calling for the exiled Buddhist leader's return at a local horse racing festival in August. The incident sparked minor clashes between Tibetans and authorities in the area, leading to brief detentions for about 200 others.

An official at the Ganzi Autonomous Prefecture People's Court confirmed the man's conviction on Monday on the charge of subversion. The official, who like most Chinese bureaucrats refused to give his name, declined to give any details.

Radio Free Asia, a broadcaster funded by the U.S. government, said a sentence would be handed down next week. Subversion, a loosely defined charge frequently used to punish government critics, can carry a sentence of a few years up to death in extreme cases.

The ruling comes as China has accused world leaders who have met the Dalai Lama in recent months of interfering in China's internal affairs.

China says the Dalai Lama has been trying to split the country since he fled Tibet after a failed uprising in 1959. The Dalai Lama, who leads a government in exile based in India, says he is campaigning for real autonomy for Tibet under Chinese rule, although many Tibetans maintain their homeland was an independent country before the arrival of communist troops in 1951.

Runggye Adak, also spelled Adrak, was also charged for causing the protests that followed his detention in the traditionally Tibetan town of Lithang, according to RFA. The gatherings led officers to fire warning shots to disperse the crowd outside the local detention center.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported in that Runggye Adak had been arrested for "inciting the separation of nationalities."

"Police sources said they would handle the case of Runggye Adak, whose words and deeds were meant to separate the country and harm national unity and (who) has disrupted public order, according to law," the Xinhua report said.

RFA quoted the judge in the case as saying that Adak met the Dalai Lama in India, where his two daughters study, and returned to China with plans to split the country.

In a related development, the activist group International Campaign for Tibet said eyewitness accounts showed a Tibetan statue near the sacred Kailash mountain was destroyed by armed security personnel at the end of September. It said about 20 Tibetans had tried to prevent the destruction by forming a human shield.