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Dalai Lama pins hopes on Indian PM's US visit

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The Dalai Lama addresses journalists during a press conference on the occasion of the 5th World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet, held at the Italian Lower Chamber of Parliament, in Rome, 18 November 2009. The Dalai Lama reiterated the need for autonomy in Tibet, and hoped the Indian Prime Minister will communicate Tibetan concerns with US President when he meets him.File photo/AP/Gregorio Borgia/Italy

Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama on Saturday reiterated the need for autonomy in Tibet, adding that he is sure Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will communicate their concerns when he meets US President Barack Obama in Washington on 24 November.

He said, “Our stand is known. We want autonomy and I am sure when PM Dr Manmohan Singh meets President Obama, he will make our stand clear.”

This statement from the spiritual leader comes just days after Obama appealed to China to resume talks with representatives of the Dalai Lama for resolving the vexed Tibetan issue.

“We did note that while we recognise that Tibet is part of the People’s Republic of China, the United States supports the early resumption of dialogue between the Dalai Lama’s representatives and Beijing,” Obama had said after his meeting with Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in Beijing earlier this month.

China, which has ruled Tibet since its troops occupied the territory in the 1950s, has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama of leading a campaign to split the Himalayan region from the rest of the country. The 74-year-old Dalai Lama, who fled to India amid a failed uprising against Chinese rule in 1959, has denied the allegations.

The last formal talks between the Dalai Lama’s envoys and Chinese officials, the eighth since 2002, ended in an impasse in November last year, with China demanding that he prove that he did not support Tibetan independence.

Relations have been particularly tense this year after large scale riots in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital, in which hundreds of shops were torched and Chinese civilians were attacked in spring 2008.

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