Tibet issue can be solved: Dalai Lama

“When China becomes more democratic, with freedom of speech, with rule of law and particularly with freedom of the press, ... once China becomes an open, modern society, then the Tibet issue, I think within a few days, can be solved,” the Dalai Lama said.

Addressing the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday, the Dalai Lama had said China was lacking the moral authority to be a true superpower.

He arrived in Poland Friday for an eight-day tour during which he was to meet with visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday, a move which has sparked outrage in China.

The Buddhist leader and other Nobel Peace Prize laureates were invited to this Baltic port city to mark the 25th anniversary of the day the award went to Poland’s Lech Walesa for leading the Solidarity movement in a peaceful struggle against the then communist regime.

“If I were in the country of his Holiness (Tibet) I would fight there too,” Walesa told a youth forum Friday, speaking in debates alongside the Dalai Lama.

“How would I lead to victory? I can’t say this publicly... Really there is a chance... There is no situation where there is no chance, you just have to choose your means and your strength and time to reshape the political scene at the right time,” said Walesa.

The former union leader is regarded as a key figure in the peaceful collapse of communism in Poland in 1989.

“I will try to say how I would fight but not publicly, in private,” he added. “I wish the Tibetan nation freedom,” said Walesa who was also president after the fall of communism.

The Dalai Lama, who lives in exile in India, has sought “meaningful autonomy” for Tibet since he fled his homeland following a failed uprising in 1959 against Chinese rule, nine years after Chinese troops invaded the region.

China claims he actually seeks full independence.

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