By Tenzin Dharpo
DHARAMSHALA, Dec. 23: International media agency Reuters in an exclusive report published on Dec. 21 reveals conclusive details of ties between the Chinese government and International Shugden Community, a group which accuses the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama of banning a controversial deity called Shugden and whose members organize protests against the Dalai Lama internationally.
Reuters reported that leaked internal Communist Party document issued to party officials in 2014 shows Beijing’s instructions calling the Shugden issue “an important front in our struggle with the Dalai clique”.
Lama Tseta, a Shugden defector who sought asylum in the United States in an interview circulating on YouTube claims that he was once a proponent of the elaborate alliance between the group and the Chinese government. He claimed that in 1997, Panglung Gyalchen Kuten, who resides in Taiwan and who appoints all officials, had appointed him as one of the four officials and in the year 1999, was appointed as the Chairman of Regional Shugden Society.
In the same interview, he confessed to being a part of operations overseen by United Front Work Department and the Lhasa City Public Security Bureau. He said, “China saw the best opportunity of using Dolgyal propitiators in our Tibetan community, financed them and gave them unlimited tasks. They (China) are trying to manipulate countries and through these countries to undermine our strength.”
The operations to defame the Dalai Lama overseas are attested by the stalking groups of protesters outside venues for the Tibetan leader’s events, shouting ‘Don’t lie Dalai Lama, give us religious freedom’. Tseta claims these groups are recruited, funded and sent by Shugden groups based in America and European countries.
On funding such organized ‘boots on ground’ arrangements, Reuters links such claims to an announcement on the website of International Shugden Community in December 2014 offering “40 free return flights from Manchester to Rome when the Dalai Lama was scheduled to attend a meeting of Nobel laureates in the Italian capital. The offer included meals and accommodation for the protesters.”
With growing protests by the group in countries the Tibetan spiritual leader visit, his office has been alerted by U.S., Indian and other intelligence agencies of “a serious potential threat to the Dalai Lama’s well-being,” according to an 18 page briefing document reviewed by Reuters.
