By Tendar Tsering
DHARAMSHALA, July 24: The Central Tibetan Administration today expressed hope that the humanitarian crisis inside Tibet will be raised at the two-day US-China annual human rights dialogue, which began Monday.
“Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay, on his recent trip to Washington, met with several senior US leaders and had detailed discussions on many important issues. We are hopeful that during the talks US will press China to end the humanitarian crisis in Tibet,” Tashi, Information Secretary of CTA said.
He also noted that the US representative of the Dalai Lama is also in “constant touch” with concerned officials in Washington.
“We will have to wait and see. We will know the result only after the meeting,” Tashi added.
The two-day closed-door talks are being held in Washington, led by US Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner and Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs Director General for International Organisations and Conferences Chen Xu.
Prior to the dialogue, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters the US would raise the rule of law, justice for individuals, equality and Tibet.
“We are always, whether it’s at the presidential level, the secretarial level, or at this working group level, raising not only individual cases, but our concerns about rule of law, justice for individuals, equality, Tibet,” Nuland said.
Global rights group, Human Rights Watch in a statement said the US should “demand public and verifiable changes in policies and practices” as a condition for holding the human rights dialogue.
“The crisis of self-immolations by Tibetans, stalled legal reform, and the latest disingenuous ‘human rights action plans,’ have been put on the agenda by the US,” said Sophie Richardson, China director at Human Rights Watch. “But another round of exchanges, particularly if there is no public discussion of the talks afterward, will allow the Chinese government to say it is engaging on rights issues while putting off necessary reforms that create a country with the rule of law and respect for basic rights.”
Kalon Tripa Dr Lobsang Sangay, on a five-day lobbying tour in the US capital this month met with several US leaders including Speaker John Boehner, Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues, Maria Otero, Senator Joe Lieberman, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and John McCain, former republican presidential nominee.
