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Dalai Lama welcomes China offer
25/04/2008 22:04 - (SA)
New Delhi - The Dalai Lama on Friday welcomed China's offer to meet his envoy for talks after weeks of protests over Tibet and repeated calls from the exiled spiritual leader for dialogue with Beijing.
China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported that talks would take place in the coming days, which the Dalai Lama's spokesperson described as "a step in the right direction".
"Only face-to-face meetings can lead to a resolution of the Tibetan issue," Tenzin Takla said by telephone from Dharamshala.
"His holiness, since March 10 when the (anti-Chinese) protests started, had been making all efforts to reach out to China and the Chinese government and he hopes the Tibetan issue can be resolved only through dialogue."
China has come under sustained foreign pressure to hold talks with the Dalai Lama since rioting erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. Six previous rounds of talks since 2002 have yielded little or no progress.
Exiled Tibetan leaders say the Chinese crackdown last month left more than 150 people dead. Beijing insists it acted with restraint, killing no one, and blames Tibetan "rioters" for the deaths of 20 people.
Credible moves
Beijing, which will host the Olympics in August, had previously resisted the foreign pressure to hold talks and accused the Nobel peace price winner of instigating the violence - an allegation he denies.
"It is hoped that through contact and consultation, the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks," an unnamed Chinese official told Xinhua.
The Tibetan government-in-exile, based in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamshala, welcomed the development.
"If (the Xinhua report is) accurate then this is something we welcome as there is no alternative to dialogue to resolve the Tibetan issue," spokesperson Thubten Samphel told AFP by telephone.
Contact maintained
In a separate statement, Tibet's prime minister-in-exile Samdhong Rinpoche said the community's leadership had been in contact with China.
"We have maintained contact with the Chinese authorities, not only to share our deepest concerns at their repressive measures to deal with the development in different parts of Tibet, but more importantly to provide suggestions to resolve the crisis."
Rinpoche said the Dalai Lama had "sent a personal communication" to Chinese President Hu Jintao as early as March 19, offering to send representatives to help calm the situation.
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