November 20, 2008
China Totally Uncompromising, say Tibetan Leaders By Jaideep Sarin
Dharamsala (Himachal Pradesh)
Many top Tibetan leaders at a crucial meet here to decide the future
course of the Tibetan struggle appear thoroughly disillusioned with
China, saying it has been "uncompromising" and is trying to waste
time through talks.
Over 580 Tibetan leaders have been divided into 15 groups from
Monday to Saturday for discussions at Mcleodganj, the headquarters
of the Tibetan government-in-exile. And it is turning out to be an
event for China-bashing.
"The insincerity shown by China on the Tibet issue in the last few
years is the only reason for this China-bashing. The Chinese
leadership does not want to come clean on the human rights
violations inside Tibet and also on their stand to allow Tibetans to
have reasonable autonomy inside Tibet," one exiled MP of the
Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies (ATPD) told IANS.
The gathering, said to be the biggest ever of top Tibetan leaders,
has been called by the exiled Tibetan parliament for the first time
in five decades at the instance of Buddhist spiritual leader the
Dalai Lama.
Eight rounds of talks between the envoys of the Dalai Lama and
Chinese leaders have failed to achieve much. The eighth round ended
Nov 4 and the Tibetan envoys came here and said they "did not even
request for the next round of talks".
"The Chinese side was absolutely uncompromising this time (during
the eighth round of talks). The Dalai Lama cannot be held
responsible for the failure of the talks," senior Tibetan leader and
the Dalai Lama's envoy Lodi Gyari said here.
Gyari, envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen, and two aides, all of whom are
attending the special meeting, have told other participants that
China was wasting time through the talks that started in 2002.
During the last talks, China rejected a memorandum submitted by the
Tibetans regarding the autonomy of Tibet. The memorandum was sought
by the Chinese side with clear instructions that everything should
comply with the Chinese constitution.
Tibetan leaders are also angry over the Chinese Central United Front
department vice minister Zhu Weiqun saying earlier this month that
top Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping never gave a statement to the
Tibetan leaders in late 1970s that "everything, except independence,
could be discussed" between both sides.
"I am shocked to hear this from the Chinese side. Deng Xiaoping had
clearly made this statement," Gyalo Thondup, the elder brother of
the Dalai Lama and the first top Tibetan leader to establish
contacts with China in 1970s, said here.
Though the Dalai Lama, the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner, advocates
the 'middle path approach' in seeking autonomy for Tibet under
China, the younger generation of Tibetan leaders wants nothing short
of independence for Tibet. Participants at the meeting are
discussing both issues - autonomy and middle-path versus complete
independence.
The Dalai Lama has been under pressure since March this year to find
new focus for the Tibetan struggle to achieve something more, saying
China is not doing anything to decide the future of Tibet. Thousands
of Tibetans inside Tibet had erupted with protests in March-April
this year, just four months before the Beijing Olympics, against
Chinese rule there.
The Dalai Lama and over 100,000 Tibetans have been living in exile
in India since 1959 when he fled from Tibet's capital Lhasa after
Chinese forces invaded it.
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