Dalai Lama wants resumption of talks with China

DHARAMSHALA (India)—The Dalai Lama wants talks between his government-in-exile and China to resume and is committed to a non-violent settlement of the Tibet issue, one of his aides told Wednesday. “Both sides have to realise that we have to live side-by-side. We have to talk to each other,” Tenzin Taklha said. “His holiness is committed to dialogue with the Chinese. We have to come face-to-face and talk to each other.”
“The Chinese will never solve the Tibetan issue by sending troops. The only way is to come together face-to-face, entering into dialogue and reaching a mutually beneficial solution,” he said. “Force is not going to remove this problem.” Tibet has seen protests and rioting over the past week, and the Himalayan region has been subjected to a tough security clampdown.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said Tuesday that Beijing was willing to hold talks, but only after the Dalai Lama gave up what is viewed in China as a campaign for the remote region to be granted independence. “We are not asking for independence,” Taklha reiterated, stressing that the Dalai Lama was “still committed to the Middle Way approach” — a policy of non-violence and autonomy for Tibet within China.
Annual talks between Beijing and members of the Dalai Lama’s government-in-exile based in northern India started in 2002, but have seen little progress. Taklha said the last talks were held in June and July last year. On Tuesday, the Dalai Lama appealed for calm and told reporters he would resign as leader of the exiled movement if violence continued.
“If the majority of Tibetans feel the ‘Middle Way’ is going nowhere, then his holiness has no other option but to resign, because he is committed to non-violence,” said Taklha, a close aide to the Nobel Peace laureate. “If people want to continue using violence, he cannot lead this struggle. He will resign as leader of the Tibetan struggle. If the Tibetan administration want to take arms, his holiness will have to resign,” he explained.
Earlier Wednesday, the Dalai Lama held emergency talks on the crisis with radical exiles from the Tibetan Youth Congress and other high-profile pressure groups. The pro-independence Tibetan Youth Congress has called for a review of the 72-year-old’s “Middle Way,” more protests inside Tibet and worldwide, plus an international boycott of the Beijing Olympics in August.
A source in the exiled Tibetan administration said the “friendly meeting” lasted 20 minutes, but also gave no details. The Tibetan Youth Congress said it was a “secret meeting.” The Dalai Lama has challenged calls for independence as being unrealistic: “I ask them how to get independence. I have no answer,” he said on Tuesday.
Dharamshala continued to be the scene of angry and noisy protests Wednesday, with radical groups lining the streets with gory photographs of what they say are Tibetan victims of a tough Chinese crackdown.—Agencies