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White House shows disrespect to Dalai Lama

By Lobsang Wangyal | Tibet Sun

The Dalai Lama, left, walks out the doors of the Palm Room of the White House by trash bags waiting to be picked up due to delays from the snow storms of last week in Washington, DC, on 18 Febraury 2010, after meeting with US President Barack Obama. File photo/AFP/Getty Images/Jim Watson/US

US President Barack Obama met the Dalai Lama despite stern Chinese warnings of straining ties between the two countries, but in an attempt to keep the much-hyped meeting low-key, the event was held removed from cameras and reporters.

Obama on Thursday met privately with the Tibetan leader in the Map Room on the ground floor of the White House, not in the President’s Oval Office, signalling that the meeting was not a political one. After the meeting, press secretary Robert Gibbs issued only a brief statement on the White House website, and released a single photo of the two leaders hours later.

The photo showed that the Dalai Lama didn’t get a plate to keep his cookie on. He had laid his cookie on a tissue paper.

After the 70-minute meeting, during which Obama assured the Dalai Lama of his support for the preservation of Tibetan culture and human rights of Tibetans under the People’s Republic of China, the Dalai Lama was escorted out a seldom-used door of the White House, next to a pile of trash bags.

News agency AFP/Getty Images released a photo showing the Dalai Lama’s White House exit scene. After the first few reports and publication of the photo, the internet is now abuzz with postings on blogs and social networking sites discussing the impolite treatment.

China’s official newspaper China Daily flashed the photo with the title: “Dalai Lama thrown out with US trash,” on its website on 21 February. Humorous emoticons poking fun at the situation were shown under the title.

A posting by a Tibetan named Jigme Ugen on Facebook read: “HH the Dalai Lama HUMILATED by the Obama administration. No guest in the history of the White House visits has ever been so MISTREATED. The Map Room meeting and the West-Wing backdoor exit. Even the frigging chinese treats the envoys [of the Dalai Lama] with more respect than this. I am furious and extremely hurt.”

Another posting by a Marina Stefanidis said: “it is so disrespectful, almost humiliating!!”

“White House sends Dalai Lama out back door past giant trash pile. Just plain tacky,” said a posting on Twitter by Mary Kissel.

Copyright © 2010 Tibet Sun

Published in Tibet Sun