US concerned about situation in Tibet

Friday, February 13, 2009

Press Trust of India
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Washington, Feb. 12: The US on Wednesday expressed its concern on situation in Tibet, but remained non-committal if the issue would definitely be taken up by the Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her visit to China later this month.

"You know, the situation in Tibet is something the US government has been concerned about for some time. We've raised that issue with the Chinese in the past," the State Department spokesperson, Robert Wood, said.

"The Secretary (of State) will be having a wide-ranging discussion with the Chinese when she is in China. I am not going to get beyond what we have said publicly about our engagement with China," he said.

"But human rights issues are something that will be at the top of the Secretary's agenda, no matter where she goes," Wood said. He was responding to a question about the latest statement from the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, that the situation in Tibet is very tense and there could be a popular uprising any moment.

"The issue could very well come up. I just don't want to get into specific subject areas at this point. But you can expect that the Secretary is going to be bringing up human rights issues throughout the trip, where she deems it necessary to do so", he said when asked about whether the issue would come up or not.

Clinton, as announced by the State Department last week, would be travelling on her first overseas trip in this position to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea and China during her week-long trip beginning February 15.