Beijing – A court in south-western China’s Sichuan province on Tuesday sentenced to eight years in prison a Tibetan who made a speech praising the exiled Dalai Lama at a horse-racing festival, state media said. The court in Sichuan’s Garze prefecture convicted Rongyal Adrak, known in Chinese as Rongji Azha, of “inciting to split the country at an international sports event” held on August 1, the official Xinhua news agency said.
Rongyal Adrak, 52, asked the mainly Tibetan crowd at the Litang horse festival if the Dalai Lama should be allowed to return to China and if the government should release the Panchen Lama, US-based Radio Free Asia reported earlier.
Police initially arrested about 20 members of Rongyal Adrak’s group and later detained dozens more Tibetans who were protesting outside the police station where he was detained, the broadcaster quoted eyewitnesses as saying.
The agency quoted Tuesday’s court verdict as saying Rongyal Adrak’s speech led to people besieging government offices “because local people were not clear about the truth.”
He reportedly stepped onto the stage and seized the microphone after he was angered by comments by two state-approved monks.
Witnesses said hundreds of paramilitary police took control of Litang in early August following the incident.
Unconfirmed reports said at least one government vehicle was burned in Litang, despite the government trying to scale down the annual festival because of trouble last year.
The Dalai Lama, Tibetan Buddhism’s highest leader, fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against the occupation of Tibet by Chinese troops since 1951.
He remains as popular as ever among ordinary Tibetans. Most Tibetans support his calls for greater autonomy for Tibet within China, although many still favour independence.
The Panchen Lama, often considered second in importance to the Dalai Lama, was once called the world’s youngest political prisoner by Tibetan activists.
The 18-year-old Panchen Lama, chosen by the Dalai Lama’s supporters, has reportedly been held under virtual house arrest in China since he was six years old in 1995
State-approved Tibetan Buddhist leaders appointed a rival Panchen Lama.
