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Dalai Lama envoys return from China talks

By Lobsang Wangyal | AFP

Two envoys of the Dalai Lama Lodi Gyari, right, and Kelsang Gyaltsen during a press conference in Dharamshala, India, on 16 November 2008. Gyari and Gyaltsen returned to India on Monday following ninth round of talks in China on the future of Tibet after a 15-month hiatus.File photo/Tibet Sun/Lobsang Wangyal/India

Envoys of the Dalai Lama returned to India on Monday following secretive talks in China on the future of Tibet that marked the resumption of dialogue after a 15-month hiatus.

The two envoys, who flew to China a week ago, held meetings with Chinese government representatives which began in the central province of Hunan before moving to Beijing at the weekend, the Dalai Lama’s senior secretary Chhime Chhoekyapa told AFP.

Chhoekyapa declined to provide any details of the talks, the first between the two sides since November 2008.

Chinese state media reported Monday that China told the representatives that it would make “no concessions” on Tibetan sovereignty.

“During the meetings (Communist Party) officials … reiterated that no concessions would be made on issues concerning China’s national sovereignty,” Xinhua news agency said.

The report marked the first Chinese confirmation that the secretive talks in Beijing had concluded.

Envoys Lodi G Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen will travel to the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala later Monday to brief the prime minister of the exiled Tibetan government, Chhoekyapa said.

At the last round of talks in 2008, the Tibetans handed over a memorandum insisting their demands for autonomy in the mountainous Buddhist enclave were in line with China’s constitution.

Beijing said at the time it would not compromise on its position that Tibet is an integral part of China, but said it would keep open the door for future discussions despite “serious divergences” between the two sides.

Gyari and Gyaltsen had flown to China on 25 January for what was the ninth round of meetings since the secretive dialogue process began in 2002.

The Dalai Lama, 75, has sought “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 the Dharamshala-based Dalai Lama actually wants full independence and has insisted that he must renounce “separatist” activities — which he denies supporting.

The resumption of talks had been warmly welcomed by Washington which said it hoped for “positive results” in addressing longstanding differences over the future of the troubled Himalayan region.

The Dalai Lama will be in Washington at the start of a 10-day US visit on 16 February. Chhoekyapa said he could not confirm whether the exiled spiritual leader would have a meeting with US President Barack Obama.

Obama came under fire from critics who accused him of caving in to Chinese pressure for not meeting the Buddhist leader when he visited Washington in October last year.

However the Dalai Lama later praised the president for addressing the Tibet question during Obama’s visit to Beijing in November.

“He, actually publicly as well as behind the scenes, has really taken up the issue of Tibet with Chinese leaders very seriously,” the Dalai Lama said.

Since the 2008 round of talks, China has maintained a tough crackdown in Tibet launched following a wave of unrest that erupted in March of the same year.

Several people have been reported executed for their roles in the violence, and earlier this month China named military veteran Padma Choling as Tibet’s governor.

He promptly vowed to crush attempts at “secession” and “safeguard national unity” — rhetoric typically aimed at the Dalai Lama.

Copyright © 2010 AFP

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