Dharamsala (AsiaNews) - The Chinese reaction to the appeal for peace in Tibetan issued yesterday by Benedict XVI is very harsh: "so-called tolerance", says the spokesman of the foreign ministry, "cannot be extended to criminals, who must be punished according to the law".  But enormous appreciation and "true gratitude" for the words of the pontiff have been expressed to AsiaNews by the prime minister of the Tibetan government in exile: the pope, says Samdhong Rinpoche, "has voiced our suffering to the world, and we are grateful to him for this".

The Tibetan premier, from the government's headquarters in Dharamsala, takes up the accusations issued against the Dalai Lama by Chinese prime minister Wen Jiabao: "We have nothing to respond to these accusations, it is the words of the Chinese authorities.  All the allegations are baseless and false, apart from that, we cannot and will not respond in their language". Rinpoche meets with the Dalai Lama every day: "He consoles us in our sufferings, and he reminds us that inner peace is the foundation of outer peace.  We are grateful for his constant appeal to non-violence, and we are saddened to see that his words go unheard".

On the other hand, a Tibetan source explains to AsiaNews, "the Chinese government completely censors the voice of the Dalai Lama in his country: for this reason, his repeated appeals for non-violence and peace in Lhasa have gone unheard.  But in this way, there is the risk of a very dangerous deterioration: Beijing must understand that the Buddhist leader is the best agent possible to make the violence stop".

In the region, our source continues, "the Dalai Lama is heard only when he prays: we do not know what he says, what he thinks, and for this reason many of us are convinced that the anti-Chinese uprising is just, whatever the cost might be.  Instead, we are discovering that our spiritual leader is saddened to see what is happening in our land.  Without the Chinese attitude of persecution, many problems would have been resolved long ago".