Not seeking Tibet’s freedom but autonomy: Dalai Lama
October 15th, 2010 - 5:53 pm ICT by IANSDharamsala, Oct 15 (IANS) Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama has asserted once again that he was not seeking Tibet’s independence and said Beijing continued to make baseless charges of separatism against him.
“It is common knowledge that I am not seeking independence (and many Tibetans are critical of this position) but the Chinese government continues to label me as a splittist,” the Nobel Peace laureate said in the US Thursday, according to a post on the website of the Central Tibetan Administration here.
“The problems in Tibet are manmade and so logically they can be resolved,” the Dalai Lama said while addressing a group of Chinese students from different academic institutions in California.
He said that in the past two years he has been taking up issues ranging from why China should become a responsible nation to ways to find a solution to the Tibet issue.
The spiritual leader said that even before the Tiananmen crisis (military crackdown on pro-democracy protests on Tiananmen Square in 1989), he had been trying to reach out to the Chinese people but was faced with difficulty. “Following the Tiananmen development, it was much easier to get responses from the Chinese,” the Dalai Lama said.
“After the 2008 crisis in Tibet (when protests against Chinese rule in Lhasa erupted into violence which spread to other areas of western China), more and more Chinese have started paying attention to the Tibetan issue,” he added.
On the ongoing dialogue process with the Chinese leadership, the Dalai Lama said: “In 2002, contact was re-established with the Chinese leadership but there has been no genuine progress.”
In the ninth round of talks held in January this year, the exiles have submitted an “explanatory” note to the Chinese leadership to clarify their stand on autonomy. After the talks, the Chinese said the two sides had “sharply divided views as usual”.
In response to a question from the audience, the Dalai Lama, 75, said they could spread the real picture of Tibet to everyone.
The Dalai Lama has been following a “middle-path” policy that seeks greater autonomy for Tibetans rather than complete independence.
However, the Chinese view him as a hostile person bent on splitting Tibet from China. Beijing frowns upon meetings between Dalai Lama and foreign leaders.
The Dalai Lama, along with many of his supporters, fled Tibet and took refuge in India when Chinese troops moved in and took control of Lhasa in 1959.
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Tags: academic institutions, central tibetan administration, chinese government, chinese leadership, chinese rule, chinese students, common knowledge, dalai lama, dharamsala, genuine progress, military crackdown, nobel peace laureate, separatism, spiritual leader, tiananmen square, tibet issue, tibetan issue, tibetan leader, tibetans, western china