By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, December 4: Exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama met Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme on Wednesday, further upsetting China, which has already put off a long-planned Monday summit with EU in a row over Tibet issue.
China, which sent military troops to occupy Tibet in 1949, reviles the Dalai Lama as a “separatist” trying to split Tibet from it, and regularly protests against countries that agree to visits by him or warns world leaders of diplomatic consequences if they meet him.
The exiled Tibetan leader says he sincerely pursuing a “middle-Way” policy, which seeks for a “real and meaningful” autonomy for Tibetan people within China, and zealously opposes the use of violence.
The meeting with Leterme was a 25-minute courtesy call at the prime minister’s official residence, AFP reported a Belgian government spokesman as saying.
“He was received as a spiritual figure. What was said will remain between them,” the spokesman added.
The showpiece of the Dalai Lama’s visit to Brussels will be Thursday’s speech in front of the European Parliament, as part of the chamber’s year of intercultural dialogue. Later in the day he will also visit the Belgian parliament where he will meet the senators and deputies who wish to see him but is not due to address the chamber formally.
EU Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso reportedly said he would be in Luxembourg and therefore wouldn’t meet the Dalai Lama. Nevertheless he stressed that he did meet the Tibetan leader during his last visit to Brussels in 2006.
Earlier, during his visit to Prague, the Dalai Lama met former Czech president Vaclav Havel, a longtime friend, as well as Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek and Foreign Minister Mr. Karel Schwarzenberg.
Havel reportedly said in the Czech capital that the Tibet situation required “patience, endurance but also some vigilance, because certain irreversible things are happening, such as the transfers of Chinese people to Tibet.”
The Nobel peace Laureate is scheduled to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU’s presidency, in Poland on Saturday.
The Dalai Lama’s ongoing Europe tour has upset Beijing.
In protest, China has cancelled its annual summit with the EU towards the last minute and sternly warned the French President that his meeting with the Tibetan leader would put relations at risk.
Meanwhile, the exiled Tibetan leader on Monday called on the world to stand firm when dealing with China, while recognising that the Asian economic giant could not be ignored. He said, in order to protect the long-term interests of the Chinese people, world must not falter on the issue of on the issue of human rights.
On Wednesday, the Dalai Lama urged Europe not to appease China, saying that frank dealings and treating Beijing “as a friend” alone would best serve human rights.
China maintains that doors for dialogue with the Dalai Lama side is always open. However, following the latest round of talks last month, Beijing categorically denounced the Tibetan leader’s position after his envoys presented them in a “Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People” and vehemently increased its usual anti-Dalai Lama rhetoric.
On Thursday, Chinese state-run Xinhua news agency again issued two commentaries as a latest blast in Beijing’s campaign against the Dalai Lama. The longer official counter-blasts come ahead of the Dalai Lama’s trip to Poland, where he will meet the French President.
Lately, the Tibetan leader, now 73, has said he was losing “faith and trust” in dealing with Chinese leadership on the issue of Tibet. In the absence of any positive response from the Chinese leadership to his “middle-way” policy, the Dalai Lama said Tibetan populace must be prepared to take more active responsibility in deciding the future course of action.
“If the Chinese leadership honestly engages in talks, then I may be in a position to take up this responsibility again. I will, then, sincerely engage with them,” the Dalai Lama said in October at a huge public function in Dharamsala, his exile hometown in northern India.
