Dalai Lama calls for more freedoms for Chinese

Thursday, September 08, 2011

AFP

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama (AFP/File, Alex Domanski)

MONTREAL — Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama on Wednesday called on China to allow information to flow more freely and to create an independent judiciary.

A quick transition in China from communism to democracy "would create many problems," he said during a visit to Montreal. For now, "what China needs," he said, "is free information and an independent judiciary."

The leader, whom Buddhists believe to be the reincarnation of a past lama, fled Tibet following a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959. He later founded the government in exile in Dharamshala, northern India.

He says he is seeking greater rights for Tibetans and accepts China's rule. But Beijing insists he is a "splittist" trying to divide the country, and has called him a "wolf in monk's clothing."

At the World's Religions After September 11 conference in Montreal, the Dalai Lama also warned against corruption in India.

He recalled recently meeting a student and a businessman in Mumbai, both of whom lamented that "one cannot survive ... cannot make business without corruption."

"If you are a believer, you must not indulge in corruption," he said.

The Dalai Lama also chided Chinese communism for having "no ethics" and warned against mining in the Himalayas. "You can change political mistakes, but for ecology it is more difficult," he said.