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The ball is in China's court: exile PM

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

Prime Minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche during a press conference in Mcleod Ganj, India, on 11 March 2009. He said he is ready to engage with China for dialogue if they takes the initiative, saying the ball is in China’s court to resolve the Tibetan issue.Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

Saying the ball is in China’s court for dialogue to resolve the Tibetan issue, the prime minister of the Tibetan government-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche said his side is ready for engagement with the leadership of China if they took the initiative.

“The present leadership may not be willing to engage with us to progress the dialogue process, but they are not permanent leadership,” Rinpoche said during a press conference in Mcleod Ganj, the hill-top town in northern India where the Dalai Lama is based.

Rinpoche said that the world is changing and the leadership in China needs to be changed.

“If the present leadership do not wish to take the credit of resolving the Tibetan issue, the next leadership will take the credit.”

Irrespective of the present Chinese leaders’ willingness to engage, the Tibetans are prepared to fight on until their aspirations are fulfilled.

“As far as we are concerned we are prepared for another 100 years of struggle. The inspiration is there. So we have no worry.”

Rinpoche said that the time is not with China, and it is not with the Tibetan side as well. He, however, said that Tibetans have no hurry at this moment, but will wait and continue their efforts until the day comes when the issue will be resolved.

Thinking delaying the issue will cause the matter to die down is absolutely a mistake on Chinese part, he says.

In an implicit expression of distrust with the current Chinese leaders, the Tibetan leader is pinning hope on the future leaders saying, “The people of China is with us.”

Tibetan issue is a tool for Chinese leaders to keep the mainland Chinese at bay from demonstrations considering the current economic and unemployment crisis.

“They (the Chinese leaders) need some kind of instability in Tibet so that the attention of the main land China can be dealt with and no demonstrations take place in China.”

China also wants violent demonstrations in Tibet so that they can use force, and secondly they want to label Tibetans as terrorists to damage the image of Tibetans, Rinpoche pointed out.

On asked about the current situation in Tibet, he said no news could be escaped from Tibet for the last four days.

However, he said he received one news in the evening of 10 March which was from Kandze town in Sichuan province, eastern Tibet.

“The news was that Kandze town was virtually under curfew on 10 March, the Tibetan uprising day. No vehicles were allowed to move, no shops were allowed to open. People were not allowed to go out of their offices. It was absolutely barren and is under undeclared curfew.”

Copyright © 2009 Tibet Sun

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