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Dalai Lama still wants talks with China

AFP

Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama greets followers in Tokyo, on 6 November 2008. The Dalai Lama believes dialogue with Beijing is the only way to resolve the deadlock over Tibet, despite the failure of the latest talks with Chinese officials, aides said Tuesday.AFP/Toshifumi Kitamura/Japan

The Dalai Lama believes dialogue with Beijing is the only way to resolve the deadlock over Tibet, despite the failure of the latest talks with Chinese officials, aides said Tuesday.

His spokesman Tenzin Taklha told AFP that the exiled spiritual leader “believes the solution to any type of conflict is through dialogue.

“There can be no progress if there are no talks. The only solution is dialogue. This has been the consistent stand of the Dalai Lama,” he said.

The comments came after China blamed the Dalai Lama’s representatives for an impasse seen at the end of two days of talks last week.

Thubten Samphel, spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile based in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala, noted that the Dalai Lama had said last month that his “trust in the Chinese government was diminishing.”

“But he never said he had given up on talks,” Samphel said.

The comments also come ahead of a meeting of Tibetan representatives in Dharamshala to discuss the future of the region and “how best we can move forward,” Samphel said.

The Dalai Lama has been seeking “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet since he fled his homeland following a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, nine years after Chinese troops invaded the region.

China says he is seeking full independence — a “separatist” action that it opposes.

The Tibetan Youth Congress, representing young exiles across the world, favours a more radical approach than the Dalai Lama, demanding full independence.

Copyright © 2008 Agence France-Presse

Published in AFP/Google News