We have proof of Dalai Lama’s involvement in Lhasa riots: Chinese minister

China has sufficient evidence to prove that last year’s Lhasa riots were masterminded and incited by Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, a vice minister of the ruling Communist Party of China (CPC) has claimed.

“We have ample facts and evidence that last year's Lhasa violence was premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai Lama clique… Also, the Dalai Lama himself has made several speeches since the March 14 riots to defend involved criminals,” China Daily quoted Zhu Weiqun, a vice minister of the United Front Work Department of the CPC, as saying.

Zhu added that the Dalai Lama turned to so-called “middle line” after his conspiracies- aided with some Western countries failed to achieve “Tibet independence.”

“However, the so-called "middle line" is still in nature "Tibet independence". Since 2007 to the opening of the Beijing Olympic Games, the Dalai Lama clique, especially the extremist group "Tibetan Youth Congress", had organized and incited a series of violent activities in an attempt to disrupt Tibet's society,” he claimed.

On the question of why the Chinese authorities ended talks with the Dalai Lama's private representative, Zhu said it was the Dalai Lama himself who halted the talks.

“During the talks in last Nov, the Dalai Lama's representative showed a so-called "memorandum on Tibetans' genuine autonomy" and claimed that the following talks with the central government should be based on the memorandum,” he said.

“At that time, the central government's stance is crystal clear that the memorandum is another edition of the Tibet independence plot that is completely unacceptable. Seeing its attempt fail to come true, the Dalai Lama clique immediately convened a special meeting among all exiled Tibetans and announced the suspension of the contact and talks,” he added.