Clinton's promise cheers Dalai Lama

C K Arora in Washington

In a major development United States President Bill Clinton has promised the Dalai Lama that he would ask China to open a direct dialogue with the monk or his representative on his demand for self-rule for Tibet.

He gave this assurance to the Dalai Lama during a White House meeting on Wednesday. He met the Buddhist monk despite warnings from Beijing that such a step might bring Sino-US relations under strain.

Apparently to avoid offending China, Clinton did not have a formal meeting with the Dalai Lama but dropped by for discussions with the spiritual leader while he was having talks with Vice-President Al Gore.

After his meeting with Clinton and Gore, the Dalai Lama visited Hillary Clinton in her White House residence at her invitation.

White House press secretary Mike McCurry said Clinton intended to raise the issue in the fall at a Washington summit with Chinese President Jiang Zemin.

Clinton is scheduled to meet Chinese Foreign Minister Qian Qichen next week.

China has declined to enter into any kind of negotiations with the Dalai Lama, insisting that he is not a religious leader but a political activist trying to lead an independence movement.

The Dalai Lama said he had a ''very good'' discussion with Clinton and Gore on ''human values'' and ''some Tibetan problems'' which he declined to elaborate. ''I'm very happy, I'm satisfied,'' he remarked.

He made it clear that he was not seeking any kind of conflict with China and, in an extremely conciliatory note, he said he was only trying to secure self-rule for Tibetans, not independence from China.

Earlier, he addressed the World Parliamentarians convention on Tibet in which India was represented by three members of Parliament -- former minister George Fernandes (Samta Party), Brij Bhushan Tiwari (Janata Dal) and Mahesh Chandra Sharma (BJP).

Mahatma Gandhi's grand-daughter Ela Gandhi, who is a member of the South African parliament, was also present.

The Dalai Lama said his top priority was to protect and save the Tibetan people's cultural identity. ''Accordingly, I have tried to adopt a pragmatic approach to find a negotiated settlement which is mutually agreeable to the Tibetan and Chinese people,'' he added.

He said he was ready to enter into negotiations with China to ''end the turmoil in Tibet''.

Congressman Bejamin A Gilman, chairman of the international relations committee of the US house of representatives, who pledged full support to the Dalai Lama's demand, criticised the Clinton administration's policy of keeping human rights separate from its other China issues.

He indicated that the administration might face difficulties in winning its annual spring battle for congressional approval of renewed trade privileges for China.

UNI

Earlier story:
Dalai Lama will visit White House, but will not discuss politics