Daryl Loo
Reuters
Singapore said on Tuesday it supports China’s policy in the handling of the unrest in Tibet and opposes politicisation of the Olympic Games.
“Singapore supports the declared policy of the Chinese Government to protect the lives and property of its citizens from violent demonstrators with minimum use of force,” the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement in response to the situation in Tibet.
“We note the comment of Premier Wen Jiabao that China is prepared to hold dialogue with the Dalai Lama based on ‘One China’ and the renunciation of violence, and we are relieved that the situation in Tibet is calming down,” the Singapore statement added.
China alleges the exiled Dalai Lama, Tibet’s spiritual leader, was conspiring to wreck the Beijing Olympic Games this summer and masterminded the wave of protests that began with peaceful rallies in Tibet’s capital Lhasa on March 10.
Five days later, the marches erupted into a riot in Lhasa in which China says 19 were killed. The Tibetan government-in-exile in India raised its death toll in the clashes to 130 on Monday.
Although there have been few reports of new violence or protests in recent days, the Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday that a mob armed with stones and knives had killed an armed Chinese policeman in a Tibetan part of western China.
The Dalai Lama has repeatedly denied he is behind the protests and violence.
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