Home > News Archive > China says Tibet exiles meeting will "get nowhere"

China says Tibet exiles meeting will "get nowhere"

AFP

Tibetans protest in Delhi as the Beijing Olympics torch runs through the city on 17 April 2008. China said that a meeting of Tibetan exiles in India next week would “get nowhere” if Tibetans stand for Tibetan independence and urged Delhi not to allow separatist activities in India.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

China said Thursday a meeting of Tibetan exiles in India next week would “get nowhere” if it sought independence for the Himalayan region and urged Delhi not to allow separatist activities.

“The Chinese government is solemnly against any activities aimed at dividing China,” foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang told reporters.

“The people planning or attending this meeting do not represent the majority of the Chinese people. Their separatist attempts will get nowhere.”

More than 500 leading Tibetan exiles will gather for a meeting next week that could radically alter the course of their decades-old struggle against Chinese rule in Tibet.

The meeting is the largest of its kind in 60 years and was called by Tibet’s spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, after he said last month he had lost hope of a negotiated settlement with Beijing over the future of Tibet.

The gathering will be held Nov. 17 to 22 in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala, where the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan government-in-exile has been based for decades.

Many exiles are impatient with the Dalai Lama’s call for “meaningful autonomy” for his homeland and there are growing calls for outright independence from China.

“The Indian government has made solemn commitments on several occasions that ( it) does not allow any activities on its soil aimed at dividing (China),” Qin said, when asked about the meeting at a regular press briefing.

“We hope that this commitment can be fulfilled.”

India has increasingly been caught in the middle, especially since March when anti-Chinese riots spread across the Tibetan plateau, prompting a heavy Chinese crackdown.

In June, Delhi stopped hundreds of exiled Tibetans staging a protest march from India to Tibet, after pressure from Beijing.

India is home to more than 100,000 Tibetan refugees.

The Dalai Lama and his supporters fled to India in 1959 following a failed anti-Beijing uprising in the region. He accuses Beijing of oppressing his people and trying to exterminate Tibetan culture.

Copyright © 2008 Agence France-Presse

Published in NASDAQ.com