By Phurbu Thinley
Dharamsala, December 10: Submitting that series of talks with Beijing had failed to produce any positive changes in China’s Tibet policy,” the Prime Minster of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche Wednesday said China should be entirely responsible for the future status of the dialogues between the two sides.
“The Tibetan side has already made all the required clarifications and brought a process of dialogue that began in 2002 to its logical conclusion,” PM Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche said.
“The current process of Sino-Tibetan dialogue has failed to produce any positive changes in China’s Tibet policy,” Rinpoche said. “Moreover, the situation inside Tibet is worsening by the day,” he added.
“Therefore, the entire responsibility for the future status of our dialogues, irrespective of what it is going to be, lies squarely on the Chinese leaders,” he said.
Rinpoche said his administration had, since the re-establishment of Sino-Tibetan contacts in 2002, “engaged in serious discussions with the People’s Republic of China based on “the policy of one official channel and one agenda to determine the future of Tibet within the framework of the Chinese constitution so that all Tibetans could enjoy complete self-rule under a single administration”.
However, after the latest fateful round of talks held in Beijing last month, China categorically rejected a Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People submitted by the Tibetan envoys. Calling the memorandum an “agenda of independence”, the Chinese side increased its usual anti-Dalai Lama rhetoric.
Rejecting Chinese assertion, Rinpoche said the memorandum was simply a “detailed explanation in writing of how the provisions of a genuine autonomy as stipulated in the constitution of the People’s Republic of China and its Law on National Regional Autonomy could be implemented” in Tibet. He also said it was submitted after Chinese side asked His Holiness the Dalai Lama to “clearly explain what he was actually seeking by saying genuine or meaningful autonomy” during the seventh round of talks, which was held in July this year.
PM Rinpoche today said the memorandum would “serve as a definite agenda” if in the future dialogues were to be continued between the two sides.
“We have, furthermore, kept the door of dialogues always open should the leaders of the People’s Republic of China be willing to continue discussions on the memorandum we submitted,” he said.
“And even if dialogues do not take place for the time being, nobody can speculate on or distort the real intentions of His Holiness the Dalai Lama because the Chinese people and the international community have been clearly informed of his intentions,” he said.
The PM, however, said his government would remain committed to the “Middle-Way Policy” with great confidence, saying an overwhelming majority of Tibetan people’s suggestions from the last month’s “Special Meeting” supported the policy.
“Therefore, not only will the Central Tibetan Administration be able, now, to abide by and follow the Middle-Way policy with great confidence, but will also strengthen its constructive actions or programmes towards this end internationally,” the Tibetan PM said.
PM Samdhong Rinpoche was speaking at an official function commemorating the 19th anniversary of the conferment of the Nobel Peace Prize to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the 60th World Human Rights Day in Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan Government-in-exile in northern India.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel peace prize in 1989 for his relentless efforts to achieve a non-violent solution to the Tibetan issue.
