China urges Indian caution over Tibet's Karmapa Lama

"The Karmapa Lama is just a boy. We oppose any ttempts by anybody to use him to engage in anti-China activities," Foreign Ministry spokesman Sun Yuxi said. China hopes India will honour its "explicit commitments" and "handle this issue carefully and properly", Sun said. "The Indian government has clearly stated that it will not permit the Karmapa Lama to conduct anti-China activities or allow any foreign forces to use him for anti-China activities," Sun said.

On Tibet, "anti-China activities" means following the Dalai Lama or advocating independence or greater autonomy for the region occupied by China since the 1950s. India has granted refugee status to the 15-year-old whom Tibetan Buddhists consider the 17th incarnation of their third-highest lama, behind the Dalai and Panchen lamas. Ugyen Trinley Dorjee, the Karmapa lama, fled Chinese-occupied Tibet in December 1999 and crossed into India over the Himalayas.

Beijing initially claimed he was visiting India for study and would return to China. He has stayed under high security in a monastery near the northern town of Dharamsala, which also is the seat of the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959, and about 120,000 other Tibetan refugees.

(la/dpa)