The Elysee Palace has confirmed a meeting that took place between French President Nicolas Sarkozy and a French Buddhist monk close to the Dalai Lama on Saturday in response to current unrest in Tibet.
Matthieu Ricard, known for his role as the Dalai Lama’s French translator, met with the French President on Saturday to broach “a range of options”.
With an increasing number of world leaders announcing their decision to stay away from the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing and the global torch procession in the midst of dissent, the two men eyed methods to bring the Tibetan spiritual leader and the Chinese authorities together for negotiations.
“The president was very concerned that a dialogue should be opened and that the question of Tibet be resolved in a satisfactory manner,” Ricard said after the discussions.
Ricard emphasized that he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the Dalai Lama but met with the President in order to ‘impartially and sincerely’ bear witness to what he said were 192 deaths and 2,300 arrests in view of the current altercation in Tibet.
Ricard also added that Sarkozy “put the focus on the credibility of the information coming out on behalf of the Tibetans”.
The Elysee confirmed the meeting between these two men, but gave no further details.
“Various options were discussed, but I do not think that it’s up to me to reveal their contents,” Ricard, who usually lives in Setchen Monastery in Nepalese capital Kathmandu, said.
Sarkozy has already linked his own appearance at the Olympic Games opening ceremony to progress on China’s human rights record in Tibet and whether Beijing opens dialogue with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. France will be holding the rotating presidency of the EU at the time of the Beijing Olympics.
The Olympic torch itself came under attack in Paris and in London from pro-Tibet protesters whilst on the European leg of its global journey to China.
“I have the hope that something can move — for the first time in a long time,” Ricard, son of the French philosopher and writer Jean-Francois Revel said.
Ricard brushed off the remarks made by the Chinese President Hu Jintao as ‘the usual rhetoric’. The Chinese President on Saturday accused the Dalai Lama for the failure of a possible dialogue between the two sides.
“The Dalai Lama is only asking for one thing, and that is to meet the president and the prime minister for talks without any preconditions,” Ricard said.
In an interview to the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has served notice on China that she would meet again with the Tibet spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, even as Beijing’s criticism of him hardens.
A number of world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US President George W. Bush, have met the Dalai Lama last year – much to the annoyance of Beijing.
