Dalai Lama not a 'separatist', envoys tell China

Wednesday, February 03, 2010

AFP
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Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama's special envoy Lodi Gyari, center, gestures as the official spokesperson of the Tibetan government-in-exile Thupten Samphel, left, reads a statement from the envoys during a press conference in Dharmsala, India, Tuesday, Feb. 2, 2010. The special envoys returned to Dharmsala Monday after two days of talks with their counterparts in Beijing. China warned U.S. President Barack Obama on Tuesday not to meet the Dalai Lama, saying any such meeting would harm bilateral relations. (AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia)

Dharamsala-- Envoys of the Dalai Lama said Tuesday they had urged China in talks last week to stop labelling the exiled Tibetan leader a separatist, and to engage with him on resolving Tibet’s future.

In a statement issued a day after their return from meeting with government representatives in China, the two envoys said they had refuted Beijing’s portrait of the Dalai Lama as a pro-independence activist bent on personal and political empowerment.

“We called upon the Chinese side to stop these baseless accusations against His Holiness and labelling him a separatist,” the statement said.

“Instead, we urged the Chinese leadership to work with him to find a mutually acceptable solution to the Tibetan problem,” it added.

Kelsang Gyaltsen and Lodi G Gyari returned from China on Monday after six days of talks — the ninth round of meetings since the two sides started their secretive dialogue in 2002.

Earlier Tuesday, Beijing said no progress was made at the talks and stressed that both sides remained “sharply divided” on the future of the Himalayan region.

Zhu Weiqun, executive vice minister of the Communist Party body that handles contact with the Dalai Lama, also reiterated accusations that the Bhuddist leader was a “separatist” and “troublemaker” bent on inciting world hatred of China over its control of his mountainous homeland.

Gyaltsen and Gyari maintained that the main bone of contention lay in “differing perspectives” of the current situation in Tibet and said they had suggested a common effort to study the “actual reality on the ground”.

They said they had made it clear to China that the Dalai Lama, who fled his homeland after a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, had no personal demands to make and was solely concerned with the rights and welfare of the Tibetan people.

“The fundamental issue that needs to be resolved is the faithful implementation of genuine autonomy that will enable the Tibetan people to govern themselves in accordance with their own needs,” their statement said.

The Dalai Lama has long denied Chinese charges of inciting unrest to further a cause of Tibetan independence, insisting that his goal is one of high-level autonomy within the Chinese state.

“It cannot be disputed that His Holiness legitimately represents the Tibetan people, and he is certainly viewed as their true representative and spokesperson by them,” the envoys said.

“It is indeed only by means of dialogue with the Dalai Lama that the Tibetan issue can be resolved. The recognition of this reality is important,” they added.