Dalai Lama pleads for 'world community' to resolve Tibet crisis by
Parul Gupta
37 minutes ago
NEW DELHI (AFP) - Tibet's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama urged
the "world community" Saturday to help end the turmoil in his
homeland, after renewed calls from global leaders for talks with
Beijing.
He did so hours after foreign diplomats demanded unfettered access in
Lhasa following a move by authorities to allow them to visit the riot-
torn city, where anti-Chinese protests there ended in bloodshed more
than two weeks ago.
"We have no power except justice, truth, sincerity... that is why I
appeal to the world community to please help," the Dalai Lama told a
news conference in New Delhi.
"I am here helpless, I just pray," said the spiritual leader.
The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 from Tibet after a failed
uprising against Chinese rule, renewed calls for a dialogue with
China's leaders to end the unrest, saying: "My side is open... we are
waiting."
His appeal for help came a day after US President George W. Bush for
the first time publicly pressed China to hold talks with
representatives of the spiritual leader after raising concerns about
the situation in Tibet.
The Nobel Laureate Dalai Lama, who won the Peace Prize in 1989 for
leading a non-violent struggle for the liberation of his Himalayan
nation, reiterated he was "fully committed" to China hosting the
Olympics in August.
But the 72-year-old added it was im****tant "to remind the Chinese that
in order to be respected hosts of the Games" human rights in Tibet
must improve.
"China looks stable but underneath there's lot of resentment," he
said, calling China "a police state."
The unrest in Tibet began on March 10 to mark the anniversary of the
failed 1959 uprising, which forced the Dalai Lama to leave his
homeland.
Unrest erupted into widespread rioting in Lhasa on March 14, and
spread to neighbouring Chinese provinces populated by Tibetans.
Beijing says rioters killed 18 innocent civilians and two police
officers during the unrest in which Western tourists re****ting seeing
Tibetans pelting Chinese with stones and torching Chinese buildings.
Exiled Tibetan leaders have put the death toll from the Chinese
crackdown at between 135 and 140 Tibetans, with another 1,000 people
injured and many detained.
On Saturday, diplomats from 15 embassies, including those of the
United States, Britain, France and Japan, arrived in the Tibetan
capital for a hastily arranged one-day tour.
They visited the Jokhang Temple, one of Tibetan Buddhism's most sacred
shrines, where monks converged on a tightly government-managed foreign
media tour Wednesday and denounced Chinese rule, one Western diplomat
in Beijing told AFP after being briefed on the trip.
"The chairman of Tibet reassured them (diplomats) that the monks would
not be punished" for their Wednesday protest, the diplomat said.
"This visit is a good first step, but does not go far enough to meet
the request for unfettered access," he said.
"Obviously this has been a highly managed visit."
Upon arrival to Lhasa Friday evening, the diplomats met the chairman
of Tibet's government Qiangba Puncog, visited wounded paramilitary
police in hospital and chatted with ordinary Tibetans, the diplomat
added.
China announced the trip late Thursday night -- allowing the diplomats
only hours to prepare for the long flight to Lhasa -- as an
international uproar over Beijing's crackdown on the Himalayan region
raged.
At the start of two days of talks in Slovenia on Friday, EU foreign
ministers were split on the idea of boycotting the Beijing Olympics
opening ceremony over Tibet, but keen for China to open talks with the
Dalai Lama.
President George W. Bush's administration has steadfastly opposed a
boycott, instead urging China to act with restraint against protesters
in Tibet and to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama.
As China's clampdown escalated, so too has the response of the outside
world.
Following a meeting with Bush in Wa****ngton late Friday, Australian
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd also called on Beijing to enter talks with
the Dalai Lama, while hitting out at China's rights abuses in Tibet.
"It's absolutely clear that there are human rights abuses in Tibet.
That's clear cut," Rudd said.
"We need to be up front and absolutely straight about what's going on.
Shouldn't ****lly-shally about it."
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