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7月21日

Australia Leader meets Dalai Lama

Australia Leader Meets Dalai Lama

http://www.dalailama.com/news.138.htm

Australian Prime Minister John Howard, right, greets the Dalai Lama in Sydney, Friday, June 15, 2007. The Dalai Lama is in Australia for an 11-day tour. Beijing regards the 71-year-old Buddhist icon as a beacon for pro-independence sentiment in Tibet, which China rules by military force, although the Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he seeks only autonomy for the region. (AP Photo/Tracey Nearmy, Pool)

Sydney, Australia, 15 June 2007 (BBC) - Australian PM John Howard has met the Dalai Lama in Sydney, brushing aside fierce opposition from China.

The 71-year-old spiritual leader is on an 11-day trip to Australia, which has complicated relations between Beijing and Canberra.

China has condemned the meeting, saying the Dalai Lama is a political exile engaged in what it calls "splittist" activities over Tibet.

But Canberra says Australia is one of the world's great liberal democracies.

'Extinction'

In deciding to meet the Dalai Lama, Mr Howard has provoked a diplomatic row at a moment when trade links with China have never been closer, the BBC's Nick Bryant in Sydney says.

Australia is one of the best placed countries in the world to benefit from China's economic development, and it can help meet the rising economic power's growing appetite for minerals, especially coal.

So the decision to go ahead with the meeting was not taken lightly, our correspondent adds.

Canberra said a spiritual leader of the stature of the Dalai Lama would always be welcome.

But it also tried to placate Beijing by saying that the Buddhist icon had not been using Australia as a platform to promote Tibetan independence.

Instead the Dalai Lama has been calling for meaningful autonomy for the Tibetan people.

Without it, he has warned, Tibet along with its culture and tradition could face extinction in just 15 years.

Published: 17th of June 2007 - 23:00:37
Modified: 17th of June 2007 - 23:00:37

12:05 | 添加评论 | 固定链接 | 写入日志 | News and politics

Tibet Culture could soon End

Dalai Lama: Tibet Culture Could Soon End

http://www.dalailama.com/news.133.htm

Melbourne, Australia 8 June 2007 (AP) - The Dalai Lama warned Friday that Tibetan culture could be "finished" in 15 years if China does not allow the region to govern itself.

"Our approach is not seeking independence," the exiled spiritual leader told reporters in Melbourne. "We are seeking genuine autonomy to preserve Tibetan culture, Tibetan language and the Tibetan environment."

Wearing his trademark gold and maroon robes, the 71-year-old Dalai Lama said many Tibetans were growing impatient with the lack of progress in talks with China.

"If the present situation is the same in 15 years then I think Tibet is finished," he said.

The Dalai Lama is set to visit Australia's capital, Canberra, later this month, a prospect that prompted China's foreign ministry to warn Australian officials against engaging the Nobel Peace Prize winner.

Several Australian leaders have flip-flopped over whether to meet with the Dalai Lama, with some saying it was not worth upsetting Australia's lucrative trade relationship with China.

Prime Minister John Howard has refused to announce whether he will meet with the exiled leader, saying only that he was checking his schedule.

The Dalai Lama said it was "no problem" if Howard did not wish to meet with him.

"China is a very, very important country, and trade with China is certainly very important," he said. "So there's no question that is why the prime minister finds it a little difficult - that's understandable."

China says it has ruled Tibet for centuries, although many Tibetans say their homeland was essentially an independent state for most of that time. Chinese communist troops occupied Tibet in 1951, and Beijing continues to rule the region with a heavy hand. It regularly expresses displeasure when foreign leaders meet with the Dalai Lama.

The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 following a failed uprising, is one of the figures most reviled by the Chinese leadership, which has accused him of waging a clandestine campaign for formal independence.

Published: 18th of June 2007 - 00:06:47
Modified: 10th of June 2007 - 22:07:24

11:44 | 添加评论 | 固定链接 | 写入日志 | News and politics