(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-04-23 20:08

BEIJING - Human rights experts, both foreign and domestic, have refuted Western criticism of human rights in China's Tibet.

Speaking at the Beijing Forum on Human Rights that opened here on Monday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, many experts said the often-exaggerated claims were misleading and showed a complete ignorance of Tibet's history and today.

Guruswamy Mohan, president of the Center for Policy Alternatives of New Delhi, visited Tibet for one week last year and said he enjoyed the experience.

The Indian scholar noted the daily life of Tibetans appeared prosperous and the development and improving infrastructure was impressive.

"I don't think foreign countries should interfere in affairs of other countries. It has been the Indian policy. This is a problem between some Tibetan people and Chinese authorities," he said on Tuesday. "Other countries should not have a role in it. It is something that is the internal affairs of China.

"Human rights become a sword behind many people in the West to hit developing countries. But what about human rights in Iraq when you killed civilians and cause damage. There is no consideration of human rights."

Sherab Nyima, the Central National University of China vice president, echoed Mohan's comments. "Given the Dalai clique's usual practice, we are not surprised to see the Western criticism of China's human rights record after the March 14 riot."

"For a long time, 'human rights' has been the tool exploited by some Westerners to attack China.

"Some Westerners, on one side, beautify the image of the Dalai Lama and praise his non-violent protest. On the other side, they continue to press and require China to hold dialogue with the Dalai and resume 'human rights in Tibet'.

"These Western anti-Chinese forces' interests in Tibet's human rights issue are absolutely not from their sympathy for Tibetan people but due to the power politics and hegemony they preach," Sherab Nyima stressed.

Currently, Tibetans enjoyed unprecedented civil and political rights that weren't possible in the "old dark ages", he said.

Before 1959, a year when the Dalai Lama fled to India and China implemented democratic reforms in the region, Tibet had long been a feudal serf society. It integrated religion with politics, in which monks and the nobles practiced a dictatorship. Three of the largest feudal lords and their tribes owned all the farmland, ranches, forests and most of the livestock.

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