By Tenzin Monlam
DHARAMSHALA, November 18: After returning from the rare visit to Tibet last week, Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader in the US House of Representatives on Tuesday, said that there exists an opportunity to find ‘common ground’ with Beijing on Tibet.
Pelosi, who has been outspoken on the issue of human rights in China and a great supporter of the exiled Tibetan leader Dalai Lama, said, “So if they (Chinese authorities) think it is about independence, he (Dalai Lama) says it’s about autonomy, we only support autonomy… then I think there is an opportunity to find common ground,” she said at a press conference Tuesday.
Pelosi, who led the first delegation allowed inside Tibet since the 2008 unrest, said that the China trip was constructive and a bridge building. She also hoped to continue building that bridge through reconciliation and clear understanding.
Calling it an important gesture by the Chinese government, US Representative Jim McGovern, chairman of a congressional human rights commission, who was also a part of the delegation said “more needs to be done and we must find ways to build on the visit to carry out further reforms.”
“The US should be allowed to open a consulate in Lhasa. They should also allow more members of congress, more journalists, more members of parliament from other nations and allowing more people including Tibetans in the US to travel freely in Tibet and renewing the dialogue with Dalai Lama to resolve long standing issues,” McGovern said.
McGovern added that the Dalai Lama is part of the solution, not the problem to resolving the issues confronting Tibetan autonomy. “The issue is no the past but the future of Tibet and its people.”
He also said that renewing dialogue must be genuine and productive and on good faith.
