Chinese Communist Party officials in charge of restive Tibet used the passing of the Olympic torch relay through the capital Lhasa on Saturday to defend their control and denounce the exiled Dalai Lama.
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The torch procession ended under tight security below the towering Potala palace after having been run for just over two hours before a carefully-selected crowd, some three months after the region was convulsed by anti-Chinese protests.
Factbox: Olympic torch's trip to Tibet
"Tibet's sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it," Tibet's hardline Communist Party boss Zhang Qingli said at a ceremony marking the end of the two-hour relay through strictly guarded streets.
"We will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique," he added, in front of the Potala, traditional seat of the Dalai Lama, the most powerful figure in Tibetan Buddhism.
Image: A Tibetan woman runs with the Olympic torch in front of the Potala Palace in Lhasa, on Saturday.
Text: Reuters | Photographs: Getty Images
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