DHARAMSHALA, April 16: The United States has called upon China to engage in dialogue with the Tibetans spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama and his representatives “without preconditions”.
Speaking to reporters in Washington DC, Patrick Ventrell from the State Department said, “We call on the Chinese Government to engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama, with his representatives, and without preconditions.”
He also added that it has been his country’s longstanding policy.
Regarding China’s crackdown on the families, friends and relatives of Tibetan self-immolators, Ventrell said that the US is “very concerned by the self-immolations, detentions, arrests of family members and associates of those who have self-immolated.”
Since April 2009 as many as 114 Tibetans have set themselves on fire in Tibet calling for freedom and the return of the Dalai Lama from exile.
During his recent visit to China, US Secretary of State John Kerry raised the human rights issues with the Chinese leadership.
Last week Tibetan Prime Minister Dr Lobsang Sangay as well as Human Right Watch wrote to the Secretary Kerry urging him to raise Tibet issue and the current crisis in Tibet during his first visit to China.
