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Calls for Obama to reconsider Dalai Lama rebuff

By Michelle Boorstein | The Washington Post

The Dalai Lama meets with Sen. John Kerry (2nd R) (D-MA), Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, during a meeting at the US Capitol on 7 October 2009 in Washington, DC. The Dalai Lama has been in Washington meeting with members of the US government for the past two days. Also pictured are Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) (L) and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) (R).Getty images/Win McNamee/US

There’s some new pressure from Capitol Hill for President Obama to reconsider his rebuff of the Dalai Lama.

Obama is the first US president in nearly two decades not to meet with the Tibetan leader during a DC trip, and Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia is pressing him to change his mind and not “kowtow to the Chinese government, a government that brutally oppresses its own people.” Wolf made the comments on the House floor yesterday.

Leonard Leo, chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (a federal body created to give guidance on the subject to the highest US officials), told the AFP the Obama move is “a strategic snub.”

Meanwhile, the Dalai Lama will appear before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee later this afternoon (4 p.m.), right after he attends an award ceremony for people who have boosted the Tibetan cause. Among the interesting folks there will be a group of Chinese who have spoke out in defence of the Tibetans. Our colleague Maureen Fan a few months ago wrote a fabulous article about the rise of Chinese pursuing Tibetan Buddhism.

Actor and celeb-Buddhist Richard Gere, a very longtime ally of the Dalai Lama, will also be there today at the ceremony at 1:30 p.m. at Sidney Harman Hall downtown.

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Published in The Washington Post