Lama Envoy: China Responsible For Tibet Violence

WASHINGTON — The Dalai Lama's special envoy told lawmakers yesterday that China must bear full responsibility for recent violence and suffering in Tibet and said his homeland is being "brutally occupied."

"The situation today is grim," Lodi Gyari said at a Congressional Human Rights Caucus briefing.

Mr. Gyari, who represents the exiled leader of Tibet's Buddhists, called on senior lawmakers to make an "urgent visit" to Tibet to help show the world the misery there and to prevent China from "marginalizing" Tibetans.

Since China's crackdown last month on the largest anti-government protests in Tibet in almost two decades, Mr. Gyari said, Tibet has become, "in every sense, an occupied nation, brutally occupied."

He called for a permanent American diplomatic presence in Lhasa, Tibet's capital, and an international investigation into the violence. Mr. Gyari also expressed disappointment in the United Nations, saying China's powerful influence, as a veto-wielding member of the Security Council, was causing the United Nations to "shut its eye on Tibet."