Dalai Lama says he has given up on China talks

By Ashwini BhatiaThe Associated Press October 25, 2008
DHARMSALA, India (AP) -
- The Dalai Lama said Saturday he has given upon efforts to convince Beijing to allow greater autonomy for Tibetunder Chinese rule.
The Tibetan spiritual leader said he would now ask the Tibetan peopleto decide how to take the dialogue forward.
China has repeatedly accused the Dalai Lama of leading a campaign tosplit Tibet from the rest of the country. The Dalai Lama has deniedthe allegations, saying he is only seeking greater autonomy for theHimalayan region to protect its unique Buddhist culture — a policy hecalls the "middle way."
"I have been sincerely pursuing the middle way approach in dealingwith China for a long time now but there hasn't been any positiveresponse from the Chinese side," he said in Tibetan at a publicfunction Saturday in Dharmsala, the north Indian town that is home toTibet's government-in-exile.
"As far as I'm concerned I have given up," he said in an unusuallyblunt statement.
"The issue of Tibet is not the issue of the Dalai Lama alone. It isthe issue of 6 million Tibetans. I have asked the Tibetangovernment-in-exile, as a true democracy in exile, to decide inconsultation with the Tibetan people the future course of action," theDalai Lama said.
His speech was translated by his spokesman, Tenzin Takhla.
The spiritual leader's comments come ahead of a new round of talksbetween his envoys and Chinese government officials at the end ofOctober. Those talks are still on track, according to Chhime R.Chhoekyapa, another spokesman for the Dalai Lama.
Most Tibetans have supported the Dalai Lama's push for autonomy forthe region. The Tibetan Youth Congress is the only major activistgroup that is advocating full independence for Tibet.
Beijing insists Tibet has belonged to China for centuries. ManyTibetans, however, say the region was effectively an independentnation until Chinese Communist troops invaded in 1950.
Phone calls to China's United Front Work Department, the CommunistParty agency that handles contacts with the Dalai Lama, rangunanswered Saturday.
The Dalai Lama has been living in Dharmsala since fleeing Tibet afteran unsuccessful uprising against Chinese rule in 1959.
Greg Walton is the Editor of The Infowar Monitor. The InformationWarfare Monitor is a joint project of the Advanced Network ResearchGroup, part of the Cambridge Security Programme, The SecDev Group andthe Citizen Lab, an interdisciplinary laboratory based at the MunkCentre for International Studies, University of Toronto.