Police Arrest Supporters of Dalai Lama
The St. Petersburg Times
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The St. Petersburg Times
Some of the demonstrators who gathered outside the foreign ministry in Moscow on Thursday to protest Russia's decision.
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MOSCOW - Police detained some 30 Russian Buddhists who gathered outside the Foreign Ministry in Moscow on Thursday to protest Russia's decision to deny the Dalai Lama permission to enter the country. Chanting "Visa to Dalai Lama!" and holding portraits of the exiled Tibetan leader, about a hundred protesters from the traditionally Buddhist regions of Kalmykia and Tuva demonstrated peacefully outside the ministry building on the Garden Ring. Police quickly broke up the rally, saying the protestors were disturbing public order with an unsanctioned demonstration. By noon, those protestors who had not left voluntarily were put into police vans and taken to a nearby police station. Last week, the ministry turned down a request for the Dalai Lama to visit Russia, saying his delegation had a "political orientation" and included members of the Tibetan government in exile. The ministry said it was taking into account China's "sharply negative" view of the Dalai Lama's political activities. But Russian Buddhist leaders denied the Dalai Lama's proposed visit had any political aims and said it was designed to tend to the spiritual needs of the community. Protesters said their rally was peaceful and that there was no need for the police to get involved. "I'm a Russian citizen, and I'm allowed to walk and stand where I want in my own country," said Anastasia Manzhanova, who came to Moscow from Elista, capital of the republic of Kalmykia in southern Russia, where she is a member of the Buddhist center. Thursday's rally was the second public protest over the visa denial. Ten Buddhists were detained in a similar protest last Saturday. An estimated 1 million Russians are Buddhists, most of whom live in Kalmykia, Buryatia and Tuva. The visit would have been the Dalai Lama's first official visit to post-Soviet Russia. The Dalai Lama made an unofficial visit to Buddhist regions in 1992 and in 1996 was granted a transit visa for his trip to Mongolia but denied a similar visa request last year.
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