Tibetan PM in exile for negotiation with China

January 9, 2017;

Times of India – 9 January 2017

GAYA: Prime Minister of the Tibetan government in exile Lobsang Sangay on Sunday favoured negotiated settlement of the vexed Tibet issue. Exhorting the Chinese government to enter into dialogue with Tibetans, Sangay said negotiation and not confrontation held the key to conflict resolution. “The Tibetans were always ready for constructive dialogue with the Chinese administration and it was for the Chinese government to take a call in the matter,” said Sangay. The PM in exile was talking to mediapersons in Bodh Gaya on Sunday.

Reiterating the official stand of the Tibetans living in asylum on Indian territory, the head of the government in exile said Tibetans want autonomy, not freedom. “Autonomy to be meaningful has to be real and not cosmetic,” he added.

As per the demand of the Tibetans, areas that are mostly ethnic Tibetan should all be put under one administrative region. This includes central Tibet — what Chinacalls the Tibet Autonomous Region — and parts of the Chinese provinces of Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu and Yunnan. The exiled Tibetans also accuse China of destroying Tibet’s forest wealth and ecology on the alibi of executing development projects. They also accuse China of extreme oppression of Tibetans living in the China-occupied Tibet.

China has been consistently opposing the autonomy demand of Tibetans.

The PM in exile also said Chinese officials have prevented Tibetans from participating in the ongoing Kalchakra. When reminded that the Chinese have officially denied any coercive action against the Tibetans participating in the mega prayers, Sangay asked the Chinese government to release impounded passports of the Tibetans living in the China-occupied Tibet.

Earlier, Kalchakra organisers claimed that several thousand Tibetans went back without participating in the mega event following threats issued by Chinese government. The Tibetans were warned that participation in the Dalai Lama-led Kalchakra may mean withdrawal of all government benefits. The threat was conveyed through the family members of the pilgrims.

The PM in exile also said while Buddhism was 2,500 years old, Marxism was only about a century old and as such Buddhism has the resilience to outlive Marxism.