Dalai Lama warns of ‘great danger’

“My trust in Chinese officials has become thinner and thinner,” the Tibetan spiritual leader told nearly 600 delegates after a week-long review of the Dalai Lama’s strategy towards Beijing.

“In the next 20 years, if we are not careful in our actions and planning, then there is great danger to the Tibetan community,” he said in the exiles’ base in the northern Indian town of Dharamshala.

On Saturday, representatives from the global Tibetan movement ended their meeting by backing the Dalai Lama’s “middle way” policy of talks with Beijing seeking what they call meaningful, or greater, autonomy for Tibet.

The decision was a disappointment for those groups who had favored a shift towards an unequivocal demand for full independence.

“After frank and candid discussions... the majority decision was to continue the policy of ‘middle way,’” said the meeting’s final statement released on Saturday.

However it added their patience was not unlimited, and that the opinions of delegates who wished “to pursue complete independence or self determination if no result comes out in the near future were also strongly expressed.”

The Dalai Lama had called the conclave after admitting his attempts to secure concessions from China had failed to achieve a breakthrough.

But many delegates were reluctant to drop the policy instigated by their leader, saying any shift would lose Tibetans international support and further antagonize Beijing.

“His policy is practical,” Jamyang Jinpa, a 29-year-old monk who attended the meeting, told AFP. “It’s one that can move with the times.”

Lhadon Tethorg, a pro-independence delegate and New York president of Students for a Free Tibet, said the week had left her with mixed emotions.

“We are in a democratic system, but the opinion of the majority may not be the right one,” she said.

The meeting had no policy-making power but the exiled Tibetan parliament should view its outcome “as a form of research,” said the Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

On Friday he was again accused by China of covertly campaigning for independence — a view that the meeting’s conclusions were at pains to disprove.

He stressed that the meeting’s support for autonomy was uninfluenced by his own views.

“I deliberately remained silent to allow for free expression,” he said on Sunday, explaining why he had not attended the event.

Before the meeting, he had said he needed guidance due to the lack of progress in talks with China.

In March, protests against Chinese rule in the capital, Lhasa, erupted into violence that spread to other areas of western China with Tibetan populations.

Tibet’s government-in-exile said more than 200 Tibetans were killed in a subsequent Chinese crackdown.

Among the meeting’s recommendations was a plea for the Dalai Lama, now 73, not to repeat recent comments that he was winding down his active duties.

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