Very
few chances of agreeing with China: Tibetan leader (Interview)
By
Jaideep Sarin
McLeodganj
(Himachal Pradesh), June 7 (IANS) Just days ahead of the seventh
round of talks between the exiled Tibetan leadership and China,
a top Tibetan leader here says there is very little chance
of an agreement with China on core issues.
"Unke
saath ekmat hona bahut mushkil hai. (It will be very difficult
to agree with them)," Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister
(Kalon Tripa) of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in
the Indian town of Dharamsala, told IANS here in an exclusive
interview.
"We
have serious differences with China over two core issues -
history (of Tibet) and the population. We are ready to acknowledge
that Tibet is now part of China. But we will not say that
it was historically part of China. That is what China wants
the Dalai Lama to say. We will not do it as it will legitimise
their occupation of Tibet," Rinpoche said.
The
exiled Tibetan leadership also disputes China's division of
Tibetan territory into 11 parts. "We want all these parts
to be united and that region to be given full autonomy,"
he added.
The
next round of talks between the envoys of Tibetan spiritual
leader the Dalai Lama and Chinese leaders are to be held in
the last week of June after a gap of one year.
The
talks are crucial as these are being held after the March-April
Tibetan uprising against China and ahead of the Beijing Olympics
in August.
"We
have nothing new to raise in the forthcoming round of talks.
The issues will remain the same, plus we will raise the recent
violence inside Tibet," Rinpoche said.
The
Dalai Lama's envoys, Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen, accompanied
by two other Tibetan officials, will go to China for the seventh
round of talks.
"China
needs an enemy and they have chosen His Holiness (the Dalai
Lama) for the moment. That is their style of functioning.
They have been demonising him in recent months and blaming
him for the turmoil inside Tibet. It makes no difference to
us. They cannot keep fooling the world," Rinpoche said
in one of the hardest criticisms of the Chinese policy on
Tibet.
Rinpoche
said the problem concerning Tibet was not with the Chinese
ideology over the matter or the Chinese people but "only
with some top hardcore Chinese leaders". He refused to
identify those leaders.
Following international pressure in the run-up to the Olympics,
China held talks with the Dalai Lama's envoys last month in
Beijing but the talks ended abruptly.
China
has been blaming the "Dalai clique" for being behind
the violence in Tibet in March-April this year. They have
been calling the Dalai Lama a 'a wolf in the robes of a monk'.
But
Rinpoche said he was still hopeful that the talks between
both sides would lead somewhere, as there was international
pressure on China.
"There
is no chance that we will not talk. Tibetans are suffering
inside Tibet and we must engage China in some talks for their
cause," he said.
Rinpoche
said he did not believe that the United Front (Works department)
of China's Communist Party, with whom the Tibetan envoys are
talking, is an inconsequential entity. "This is their
party's official department that deals with minorities. So
we have no problem with that," he added.
The
Dalai Lama, who left Tibet in 1959 to flee Chinese occupation,
heads the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala.
Indo-Asian
News Service
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