Beijing celebrates 50-years of Tibet autonomous region

Tuesday's official celebration of the 1965 founding of the autonomous region was presided over by the fourth highest ranking member of China's ruling Communist Party, Yu Zhengsheng.

Yu used his keynote speech to praise economic progress achieved in Tibet over the past half century.

"During the past 50 years the Chinese Communist Party and the Tibetan people have led the transformation from a backward old Tibet to a vibrant socialist new Tibet," Yu said in his speech, delivered in front of the Potala Palace in Tibet's regional capital, Lhasa.

Yu also used his speech to praise Chinese unity and to heap criticism upon Tibet's traditional Buddhist leader, the Dalai Lama, who fled the region in 1959 amid an uprising against the Beijing authorities.

"People of all ethnicities are steadfastly engaged in a struggle against separatism, continuously thwarting the Dalai clique and foreign hostile forces' activities aimed at splitting China and undermining unity," Yu added.

Yu's speech was followed by a parade involving goose-stepping marchers and floats celebrating the achievements of the Communist Party.

'Free Tibet' not impressed

There was no immediate comment on the celebrations from the 80-year-old Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, but the London-based rights group Free Tibet derided the festivities, saying Tibetans continued to suffer in terms of censorship, restrictions on movement, and repression of all forms of opposition to the Beijing government.

"Tibet is locked down: independent media, human rights organizations and diplomats can't travel there freely and Tibetans themselves are boxed in by movement restrictions, censorship and a legal system equipped to punish any indication of Tibetan opposition," a statement posted on the organization's website said. "If Tibet's people have a good news story to tell, why doesn't Beijing let them freely tell it or give the world's media the opportunity to freely see it?"

pfd/kms (Reuters, AP)