Mongolian Leaders Wary, China Blocks Trains
(AFP | Ulan Bator | November 6, 2002)
Mongolian leaders shunned meeting the visiting Tibetan religious leader, the Dalai Lama Wednesday, as China showed its wrath over the trip by blocking trains, sources and witnesses said. However, the Dalai Lama was put up at the capital's Ikh Tenger area where top Mongolian leaders live and non-official sources said a meeting with Prime Minister Nambaryn Enkhbayar could not be ruled out. When he was culture minister in 1995, Enkhbayar, a fervent Buddhist, had successfully pressed for the last visit by the Dalai Lama to Mongolia that year, despite China's opposition.
The Dalai Lama, who arrived on Monday, is expected to depart on Friday.
Beijing has showed its wrath over the ongoing visit by blocking railway traffic at the border since Tuesday.
About 500 passengers were stranded at Mongolia's southern border station, Zamiin-Uud Wednesday, railway officials said.
The Dalai Lama addressed a religious meeting of 5,000 Buddhists inside Mongolia's biggest cultural centre, the Ulan Bator Palace, with an equal number of lay public massed outside.
Many of the Buddhists at the meeting and those outside had come from as far away as Hohhot in Chinese-ruled Inner Mongolia and Ulan Ude in Russia to see the Tibetan leader who is revered as a god-king.
China on Monday warned Mongolian officials against meeting the Dalai Lama.
"China is opposed to officials from any country meeting (the Dalai Lama) in whatever capacity and whatever form," the Chinese foreign ministry said in a faxed statement. The statement said China believed the ostensibly spiritual activities of the Dalai Lama might also serve a political purpose.
"The Dalai Lama is not a pure religious figure, but a political exile engaged in activities aimed at splitting the motherland," its statement said. "China resolutely opposes him going to whatever country in whatever capacity to engage in political activities aimed at splitting China and damaging the unity of its nationalities," it said.
The Dalai Lama canceled a planned trip to Mongolia in September after South Korea's Asiana Airlines refused to issue him with a ticket. The airline expressed fears for the Dalai Lama and other passengers' safety if he traveled via Seoul. The Dalai Lama travelled via Japan this time, sources said.
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