Beijing: Top officials from Tibet pledged on Friday to fight against the "Dalai clique" to ensure the stability of the plateau region.
"We will always place maintaining stability as our top priority and crackdown on all secessionist forces and sabotage activities," Losang Jamcan, the chairman of the Tibet regional government, said on the sidelines of the annual legislative session in Beijing.
"We cherish ethnic unity and stability as we cherish our own eyes," he said at a panel discussion, Xinhua reported.
Padma Choling, the chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region`s people`s congress, while participating in the panel discussion, accused the Dalai Lama "clique" of encouraging self-immolations in ethnic Tibetan areas.
"We have evidence that the Dalai clique is involved in it," he told reporters. "Self-immolation is inhumane. Convincing others to commit such acts is even more inhumane."
The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. The Tibetan government-in-exile is based in the Himachal Pradesh hill town of Dharamsala.
On January 31, a court in Sichuan province sentenced Lorang Konchok to death with a two-year reprieve for inciting self-immolations. His nephew and accomplice were both sentenced to 10 years in prison.
A court in northwest China`s Qinghai province on February 08 sentenced a man to 13 years in jail for convincing a monk to self-immolate.
Qiangba Puncog, the vice party secretary of Tibet, said Tibet is facing a challenging task of developing economy and improving the people`s livelihoods, as the region is striving to complete the building of a moderately prosperous society by 2020.
"The common aspiration of people of all ethnic groups in Tibet is to have a peaceful and harmonious environment," he said.
"We will take strong measures to ensure the region`s social stability," he added.
IANS
