His Holiness the Dalai Lama being welcomed by US President George W. Bush Photo:AFP
His Holiness the Dalai Lama Calls on Bush
His Holiness the Dalai Lama being welcomed by US President George W. Bush Photo:AFP |
Discussing Tibet’s present conditions with the US President, His Holiness expressed his concerns over China’s population transfer, degradation of Tibet’s environment and economic marginalization of Tibetans in their homeland. He also discussed his efforts to find a negotiated solution to the problem of Tibet, which, he told President Bush, was about the wellbeing of Tibetans in Tibet, and not about the future status of the Dalai Lama, for which he had no wish to make any appeal to the Chinese government.
President Bush was joined in the meeting by Secretary Colin Powell, Chief of Staff Andrew Card, Vice President’s National security Advisor Lewis Libby, White House Spokesman Scott McClellan, Special Coordinator Paula Dobriansky, Ambassador Shirin Tahir-Kheli who is Senior Director of Human Rights, and Mrs. Laura Bush. His Holiness was joined by Special Envoy Lodi Gyari, Representative Nawang Rabgyal, and Secretary Tenzin Taklha.
This is President George W. Bush’s second meeting with His Holiness. He is the third incumbent US President to meet His Holiness, after George Bush and Clinton.
Answering questions from the press after the meeting, His Holiness said the meetings with Secretary Powell yesterday and President George Bush today were very fruitful and that the discussions had been serious.
Asked when he would like to visit Tibet, His Holiness said he would consider the time ripe the day China began to look realistically at the problem of Tibet.
Time and again, His Holiness has expressed his wish to visit Tibet. In October 1991, His Holiness told the audience at Yale University that he was interested in visiting Tibet, accompanied by senior Chinese officials, to make an on-the-spot assessment of the actual situation in Tibet.
His Holiness told the media that the renewal of contact with China last September was a good start and that his efforts so far had been to build mutual confidence and dissipate the suspicion, of which there is plenty right now. Serious discussions, he pointed out, had not yet begun and that it would take a long time for that to happen.
His Holiness was referring to the visit of a four-member Tibetan delegation, headed by his Special Envoy Lodi G. Gyari, to China and Tibet. The visit broke a decade-long deadlock in contact between the two sides, and its mission was to reestablish direct contact with the Beijing leadership and to create a conducive atmosphere for regular face-to-face meetings.
 His Holiness the Dalai Lama in conversation with Bush Photo:AFP |
It must be noted that the spirit of China’s one-country, two-systems principle, as granted to Hong Kong and proposed to Taiwan, was reflected first in the "17-point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet", which China imposed on Tibet in 1951. However, as the Chinese army consolidated its hold on Tibet, they repeatedly violated the "agreement", causing immense suffering to the Tibetan people and damage to their culture, political system and way of life.
Prior to his meeting with President Bush, His Holiness was hosted to a special breakfast by Senator Dianne Feinstein. The breakfast was attended also by Senator Hillary Clinton, senior leaders of the Clinton Administration and current officials of the Bush Administration. Senator Feinston formally presented His Holiness with a copy of the welcome resolution passed by the Senate on 8 September.
In interviews with AP and NBC, His Holiness expressed his feeling about the September 11 tragedy and shared his thoughts on the issue of world peace. Asked what he thought of President Bush, His Holiness said as a person President Bush was friendly and as a leader bold and decisive. But whether one agreed with his decisions or not was a different matter, he added.
A report by Office of Tibet, New York
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