There is a quietness around the village at the moment. On Mondays, most of the village is closed. However, even today the streets were deserted. Although there is a winter cold and crispness in the air which may be slowing the traffic of tourists in the village, there are also talks being held throughout this week in the Tibetan community about developing a new course of action in the quest to develop a new approach in the liberation of Tibet.
The Dalai Lama, clearly frustrated with the lack of dialogue with the Chinese government, has asked for the Tibetan community to find a way forward. His Holiness is not attending these debates. Last week, David Miliband, the UK foreign secretary, recognised Chinese sovereignty in China for the first time, thus further legitimizing China´s claim.
The Guardian quoted Zhu Weiqun, a vice-minister of the Chinese Communist party's United Front Work Department, "if one day, [the Dalai Lama] really seizes power, he will without any compunction or sympathy carry out ethnic discrimination, apartheid and ethnic cleansing." What planet is this guy from?
Zhu said there had been no progress in last week's talks, blaming the Tibetan side. He described the current system as "perfect" and in need of no revision, adding: "There is no other way."
It´s all looking pretty grim.
It will be interesting to see what the Tibetan community comes up with. The Olympics and the worldwidse attention that protest got for Tibetans was a w2atershed. Predictably, international interest media interest waned with great speed (as it always does. The hypocritical governments such as those of the US, UK and France are far too indebted to China to pay more than lip service to supporting the Tibetans cause. It was obvious to anyone concerned that China would wait until the media focus shifted to an admittedly amazing Olympics, then crack down. I think many older Tibetans knew this would happen as well. Meanwhile, Tibet gets flooded with more and more Chinese tourist and residents.
ReplyDeleteStatements by Chinese government officials are usually absurd, especially regarding 'splitists'. The Dalai Lama's time seems to be over.
What will happen next?