Two senior Tibetan officials said yesterday that the human rights of more than 95 percent of Tibetans have never been better.

"The great majority of Tibetans enjoy unprecedented human rights," Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibet autonomous region, told a press conference organized by the State Council Information Office.

"The Dalai clique is the least qualified to talk about the issue of Tibetans' human rights," he said, referring to former Tibetan serf owners.

Qiangba Puncog said that when the Dalai Lama was both god and king, more than 1 million Tibetans lived as serfs.

"That time is even darker than the Middle Ages in the West," he said.

Qiangba Puncog said he himself is the child of destitute vegetable farmers from eastern Tibet.

"When my parents talked about the old times, they said the misery and hardship was beyond words," he said.

"I happened to be around in the good times. I had the chance to receive an education, to get a job and then to work my way up to be chairman of the autonomous region."

Tibetans value today's living conditions, Qiangba Puncog said.

"Those who have endured severe winters feel the warmth of the sunshine best," he said.

"Of course, former serf owners think differently," he said.

"But when we talk about human rights, it should refer to the rights of the great majority."

Sitar, deputy head of the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, said serfs were like livestock and currency under the Dalai Lama's rule.

"I read an archived letter by a Tibetan nobleman to another nobleman. It read something like this: 'We gambled the other day and I lost three serfs, seven horses and 20 gold coins to you. I'm sending them over today'," Sitar, the son of a former serf, said.

(China Daily April 10, 2008)