Johannesburg: South African Nobel peace prize winner Desmond Tutu today called on China to engage with the Dalai Lama instead of blaming him for violent protests in the Tibetan capital Lhasa.

The anti-apartheid struggle hero and former archbishop said in a statement that China should know the spiritual leader defined "non-violence and compassion and goodness."

"Listen to His Holiness pleas for restraint and calm, and no further violence against this civilian population of monastics and lay people," Tutu said.

He urged China to enter into dialogue with the Dalai Lama, who they have repeatedly accused of masterminding recent unrest in Tibet.

Violent protests broke out in Tibet after the anniversary of a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, eight years after communist troops invaded and ended 40 years of Tibetan self-rule.

The Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland after the 1959 uprising, has pledged to resign if anti-Chinese protests continue, while the protests are threatening to cast a shadow over the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing later this year.

"And China, poised to receive the world during the forthcoming Olympic Games, needs to make sure the eyes of the world will see that China has changed, that China is willing to be a responsible partner in international global affairs," said Tutu.

Source : PTI