8/6/2019 Dalai Lama Envoy Urges Van Rompuy to Speak Out on Tibet

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Dalai Lama envoy urges Van Rompuy to

speak out on Tibet

ANDREW RETTMAN

13.05.2011 @ 09:12 CET

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - An envoy of the Dalai Lama has urged EU Council head

Herman Van Rompuy to speak out on repression in Tibet during his visit to China.

When Mohammed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old fruit and vegetable seller, set himself on fire in

Tunisia in December in protest against police abuses, his death triggered events which

culminated in the Jasmine Revolution and the broader Arab spring.

The Dalai Lama of Tibet advocates non-violent resistance against Chinese occupation (Photo:

Jan Michael Ihl)

When Phuntsog, a 20-year-old Buddhist monk, set himself on fire in China in March, police

beat him while his body continued to burn, but his suicide led only to an even harder

crackdown on native Tibetans. According to reports, authorities censored news of the

incident, imposed a military blockade on the Ngaba region where it took place, killed people

and arrested 300 monks in the Kirti monastery.

Kelsang Gyaltsen, an envoy of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's leader in exile, told EUobserver in

Brussels that Phuntsog must have felt "deeply disturbed" because it is against Buddhist

teaching to take any form of life.

"In Buddhism, the most important factor is motivation. If someone takes his own life in order

to draw attention to the problems of other Tibetans, because they feel that there is nothing else

they can do, because of this motivation the act is not considered an act of violence," he said.

Speaking on the eve of Van Rompuy's trip to Beijing, Gyaltsen urged the top EU official to

confront China on human rights just as the US did earlier this week.

He said Van Rompuy should ask to send an EU delegation to visit Ngaba, seek assurances of

better day-to-day treatment of Tibetans and urge Beijing to resume bilateral talks with the

exiled Tibetan government in India on a final settlement for the province.

mailto:ar@euobs.comhttp://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/ngaba-students-protest-crackdown-authorities-respond-new-information-deaths-tibetans-who-thttp://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/ngaba-students-protest-crackdown-authorities-respond-new-information-deaths-tibetans-who-tmailto:ar@euobs.com

8/6/2019 Dalai Lama Envoy Urges Van Rompuy to Speak Out on Tibet

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"If the Chinese side does not show any positive signs, if it brushes off the concerns expressed

by the EU, he should make public the EU's disappointment and criticise the despicable

situation in Tibet," Gyaltsen noted. "If the EU does not take this opportunity, it will send a

very bad signal to hardliners in China that they can continue to abuse the rights of Tibetan

people with impunity from the international community."

Van Rompuy recently praised Arab revolutionaries. But he has a mixed record on defending

EU values.

Last November, he blocked government-critical Chinese journalists from entering his Justus

Lipsius building in Brussels for a press conference with Chinese leaders. Then he let them in,

but cancelled the press event in order not to upset his guests.

Asked by EUobsever if he will mention Tibet this weekend, Van Rompuy's spokesman Dirk

De Backer declined to give details. "We will speak about human rights, of course," he said.

"If we speak about human rights, Tibet is also part of human rights."

Asked if Van Rompuy is concerned about the crackdown in Tibet, he added: "Going to China,

you are asking a very sensitive question. It's a very, very sensitive question ... How shall I say

it? There are meetings that are foreseen and we will see what is the outcome."

For her part, EU foreign relations chief Catherine Ashton at EU-China talks in Budapest on

Thursday (12 May) asked about Gao Zhiseng, a dissident who vanished one year ago. But she

did not mention Ai WeiWei, a government-critical artist arrested in April.

Her deputy, David O'Sullivan, said she mentioned Gao amid "signs of mutual respect that we

have different systems and different ways of doing business."

Asked by press in Budapest if Ai is alive, Chinese deputy foreign minister Fu Ying said:

"Your question surprises me ... I didn't know you had so little confidence in China's political

and judicial system." She said Ai broke the law and that "it is very condescending for

Europeans to tell China that some people are beyond the law."

The Dalai Lama's envoy noted that China seeks international respectability, pointing to its

effort in staging the 2008 Olympics and its hostile reaction when another jailed dissident won

the 2010 Nobel prize.

Gyaltsen, who lives in Zurich, said many Europeans care about Tibet.

"People in former Communist countries understand the situation in Tibet because they

remember their own experience ... in Western Europe, the general public has a lot of

information about Tibet. There is a lot of support."

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