Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama urged Chancellor Angela Merkel to use Germany’s role as president of the European Union and host of the upcoming G8 summit to push more strongly for the rights of Tibetans, reported the Bild newspaper Thursday.
If the chancellor mentions the plight of Tibetans at one the upcoming international summits, “We would be very lucky,” the Dalai Lama was quoted as saying in an exclusive interview with Bild.
“It concerns human rights, the environment and the preservation of one of the oldest cultures of the world,” he said, adding that the “sympathy and solidarity” of Germans has been a huge help to the Tibetan people. The Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled Tibet after the failed coup of 1959 against the Chinese communist regime and set up a government in exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala.
The Dalai Lama complimented Merkel over recent climate protection initiatives. “It is suicide, if humans continue to destroy our world. We will all pay the price. But I do not believe that it is already too late.”
Germany currently holds the G8 presidency and the leaders of the industrialized countries will meet in June in the northern German town of Heiligendamm.
