China must probe self-immolation cause: Dalai Lama

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama has asked China to investigate the causes behind a string of self-immolation in Tibet. "These sad events are evidently not taking place because the concerned individuals have family problems. The Chinese authorities must investigate what the cause is, what's provoking such desperate acts," the Dalai Lama said in Milan, Italy.

According to the Central Tibetan Administration here, the Nobel laureate also asked the Chinese to seek truth from facts -- as recommended by their leader Deng Xiaoping. "After former premier Hu Yaobang, who was a good Communist, visited Lhasa in 1980, he publicly apologised for what had happened in Tibet and promised to reduce the Han population," said the Dalai Lama.

"When Hu Jintao became president and made known his aim to ensure harmony in society, I supported it. "But the right method for achieving that is to create trust, whereas they think they can achieve it through force, which is illogical. The use of course contradicts any efforts to create trust."

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet and took refuge in India when Chinese troops took control of Lhasa in 1959, said the Tibetan spirit would never be cowed down by force. "It's rooted in Buddhism, a tradition that is more than 2,500 years old, whose image in the world is on the rise.  "Communism, on the other hand, is barely 200 years old and its image is on the wane, while totalitarianism is completely out of date," he said.