[Dialogue] Dalai Lama: 'I am prepared to face China. I will go to Beijing'
Harry Wainwright
h-wainwright at charter.net
Fri Mar 21 16:33:09 EDT 2008
Published on Friday, March 21, 2008 by The Independent/UK
<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/dalai-lama-i-am-prepared-to-fa
ce-china-i-will-go-to-beijing-798998.html>
Dalai Lama: 'I am prepared to face China. I will go to Beijing'
As crisis over Tibet deepens, Dalai Lama makes extraordinary offer to
negotiate directly with President Hu Jintao
by Andrew Buncombe in Dharamsala
Almost half a century after he fled to India, the Dalai Lama has raised the
extraordinary prospect of travelling to Beijing and holding face-to-talks
with the Chinese regime in an effort to resolve Tibet's most serious crisis
for two decades.0321 09
Having watched helplessly from exile as his Tibetan homeland has suffered
under Chinese rule, the man regarded as a living god by millions of his
followers said yesterday that he was ready to negotiate personally with the
Chinese leadership. The Dalai Lama, 73, acknowledged the difficulty
associated with a face-to-face summit, but said he was even ready to meet
President Hu Jintao, notorious in Tibet for his hardline approach when he
served as Tibet's local Communist leader. "I am always ready to meet the
Chinese leaders, and particularly Hu Jintao. I am very happy to meet," he
told a small group of journalists at his office in Dharamsala. "But as I
mentioned earlier, to go to Beijing and meet leaders. that would be big
news. Many Tibetans would think. may develop some unrealistic expectations.
I have to think very carefully."
While a visit to Beijing would leave him open to criticism of appeasing the
Chinese, the undertaking the Dalai Lama gave yesterday underlines his
desperate wish to avoid further bloodshed in the country of his birth.
Seeking to put pressure on China, he said he was willing to travel to
Beijing in a matter of weeks if there was a "concrete indication" that the
Chinese authorities were prepared to negotiate and if the protests in Tibet
had concluded. His spokesman later confirmed that while he did not wish to
simply provide the Chinese with a photo-opportunity that could be used
against him, he was ready to discuss a "mutually agreeable solution" to the
issue of Tibet.
The remarkable prospect of a summit between the Dalai Lama and the Chinese
leadership - either in Beijing or elsewhere - came as China said police had
opened fire and wounded four Tibetan protesters in Sichuan province and
arrested dozens of others who had ignored a deadline to end the most serious
demonstrations to rock Tibet for more than two decades.
Earlier this week, the Chinese leadership indicated it would be prepared to
talk to the Dalai Lama if he stopped "separatist activities" and recognised
Tibet and Taiwan as parts of China. Gordon Brown told the Commons on
Wednesday that the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, had told him he was ready to
meet the Dalai Lama if he renounced violence. But assessing the genuine
intentions of the Chinese leadership remains at best a guessing game.
Beijing is concerned about sullying its reputation ahead of the upcoming
Olympic Games, but while giving an undertaking to meet the Dalai Lama,
various Chinese officials have continued to demonise him and accuse him and
his "clique" of orchestrating the demonstrations in Tibet.
"For the Dalai Lama, we not only listen to what he says, but more
importantly, we focus on what he does," said the Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman, Qin Gang. "He has said he is not a separatist. But all of his
propositions and actions prove that he has never stopped his splittist words
and deeds."
The Dalai Lama knows his only real leverage as head of a Tibetan government
in exile is in winning over international opinion to his cause. Today he is
due to meet Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, while
tomorrow he is scheduled to have lunch with the actor Richard Gere in Delhi.
Both have supported him for many years.
Winning the backing of camera-friendly celebrities and power-wielding
politicians has long been the strength of the smiling and avuncular 1989
Nobel laureate. Laughing, joking and yet utterly serious all in the space of
a sentence, this is a role he continues to play to perfection as the cause
to which he has devoted his life receives unprecedented world attention.
Never more than now has he needed to stress the importance of non-violent
protest and the limited nature of the movement's demands.
"The Chinese constitution already mentions autonomy [for Tibet]. So that
should not be just a word on paper but implemented on the spot," he said,
sitting in front of a statue of the Buddha. "The whole world knows Dalai
Lama is not seeking independence, one hundred times, a thousand times I have
repeated this. It is my mantra - we are not seeking independence."
In Beijing, the authorities admitted for the first time that the often
violent protests that swept through Lhasa 10 days ago in protest against
Chinese rule had spread to other Tibetan communities in additional
provinces. Subsequently, the government has dispatched more troops and
paramilitaries across the region as it seeks to reassert its control in
those areas. It has banned the media and foreign tourists from travelling to
the region.
Precisely how many people have been killed or injured as a result of the
protests and the subsequent crackdown is unclear. The Chinese government
says 16 people have died while the Tibetan exiles say the number stands at
80. On walls and buildings throughout Dharamsala, exiles have posted graphic
and disturbing photographs of Tibetans apparently killed by Chinese police
or soldiers.
"It's horrible. There are many bodies. The Chinese are holding the bodies,"
claimed Tenzin Thangh, who was participating in a candlelit vigil through
the main street of the town - a procession that has become a nightly
occurrence. "The soldiers are going into all parts of Tibet."
>From Dharamsala, a former British hill station established on the peaceful
fringe of the Himalayas, Chinese accusations regarding the Dalai Lama's
ability to direct events in Tibet and the description of him as "a devil
with a human face but the heart of a beast", appear little short of
preposterous. Indeed, his cautious "middle way" approach has been criticised
by some Tibetans, including the Tibetan Youth Congress which seeks full
independence from China. While many younger Tibetans have been outspoken in
their criticism of the Dalai Lama's tactics, in recent days they have halted
such comments in an apparent effort not to appear divided at a crucial
juncture.
What certainly does not seem in doubt is the reverence with which he is held
as the community's religious leader. Before meeting reporters yesterday, the
Dalai Lama spent time in the flower-filled gardens of the compound receiving
and blessing various visitors, including a family who had travelled secretly
from Shanghai.
Asked later how he felt about the personal insults that Chinese officials
had directed towards him, he said such comments mattered little to him. He
also said he did not believe that the international community was taken in
by what the Chinese said.
"As a Buddhist monk, it does not matter what they call me," he said with a
chuckle. "The outside world doesn't believe that I am [a] devil."
C 2008 The Independent
Article printed from www.CommonDreams.org
URL to article: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/03/21/7817/
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