China Says Rail Traffic Held Up For 'Technical Reasons'
(AFP | Beijing | November 7, 2002)
China said Thursday train traffic to and from Mongolia was stopped for a day due to technical reasons and refused to link the matter to a controversial visit to Mongolia by the Tibetan religious leader, the Dalai Lama.
Mongolian railway officials on Wednesday said Chinese authorities had blocked several trains the previous day, stranding hundreds of passengers at Zamiin Uud border station.
The situation eased Wednesday afternoon, they said. A Mongolian consul in China said the situation was now normal.
The Dalai Lama, who arrived in Ulan Bator Monday, will leave Friday by a Mongolian Airline flight to Tokyo via Seoul, officials in Mongolia said.
Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Kong Quan told a routine briefing in Beijing: "Yes, there were some trains which stopped there because of technical reasons, but before I came here I heard the trains resumed so the technical problems have been solved."
But Kong said China remained strongly opposed to any visit by the Dalai Lama to other countries and urged Mongolia not to grant him a forum for "splittist" activities.
"He is not a religious figure simply. He has been involved with activities to split China. Therefore China has always been against other countries in granting a forum to him for the splittist activities," Kong told reporters.
Mongolian leaders have so far avoided meeting the Dalai Lama, but put him up at Ulan Bator's Ikh Tenger area where top leaders live.
The Dalai Lama addressed a religious meeting Wednesday of 5,000 Buddhists inside Mongolia's biggest cultural centre, the Ulan Bator Palace, with an equal number of lay public massed outside.
China had protested strongly against a planned visit by the Dalai Lama to Mongolia in September. He cancelled the trip after South Korea's Asiana Airlines refused to issue him a ticket.
The Dalai Lama travelled via Japan this time, sources said.
China has ruled Tibet in an often brutal fashion since 1951. The Dalai Lama fled Tibet after an abortive uprising in 1959 and formed a government-in-exile in India.
Friends of Tibet (INDIA),
PO Box 16674, Bombay 400050
www.friendsoftibet.org