China-Tibet talks used to calm the world and denigrate the Dalai Lama

For the Tibetans, the encounter between the Chinese government and representatives of the Buddhist leader has helped only Beijing, which will use it to keep the international community friendly and to "demonstrate" to the Chinese population that the Dalai Lama is not maintaining his promises of peace. Doubts about the Tibetan envoys, and about the government-in-exile in Dharamsala.

Rome (AsiaNews) - Talks between the Chinese government and envoys of the Dalai Lama ended last night without any results. From Shenzhen, where the meeting took place, the two parties confirmed that they did not reach any agreement, but said that they were "in favour of holding new talks, when the moment is right".

The talks - Geshe Gedun Tharchin, a Tibetan lama living in Rome, tells AsiaNews - "have been used as communist propaganda to achieve two aims: to calm the international community, and to demonstrate to the Chinese population that the Buddhist leader is not maintaining his promise to calm the situation in Tibet".

According to the religious, "the talks are the results of international diplomatic work. In a particular way, French president Sarkozy has been very helpful, insisting on reopening the channel of dialogue between Beijing and the Dalai Lama. The problem is that the talks in themselves have not done any good, just like the previous talks. Going back to 2002 - but as far back as Mao Zedong - encounters between the two parties have not produced any result".

The two envoys from the Buddhist leader to the latest meeting were Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari (a Tibetan representative to the United States) and Kelsang Gyaltsen (a Tibetan representative to the European Union). Many Tibetans in exile have asked why Kasur Gyalo Thondup, the Dalai Lama's brother living in Hong Kong, who for years has managed relations with Beijing, was not sent as well.

Some exiles express to AsiaNews their doubts about the selection of the envoys, who "seem not to want to make any real steps forward in dialogue with China, as if the current status quo were agreeable to everyone". In effect, during the six high-level meetings held in the past six years between Beijing and Dharamsala, no results of any kind have ever been obtained.

A Tibetan lama living in India writes to AsiaNews: "The Chinese and the Tibetans will never be able to reach an agreement, because they have been historically divided for at least eight centuries. Perhaps the economy will be able to change the situation of the Tibetans, but it will not influence our history in any way. In the meantime, however, everyone is ignoring those Tibetans who have been living in Dharamsala and in Nepal for more than 50 years. What can their future be, if the government-in-exile wants them to remain stateless in expectation of a free Tibet?".

But at the same time, Beijing is continuing its campaign of denigration toward the Buddhist leader, despite requests from the Tibetans. According to an article published today in the government newspaper Tibet Daily, "after the incidents that have taken place all over the region, the Dalai Lama is not only refusing to admit his monstrous crimes, but is continuing to carry forward his fraud against the central government and the Chinese population". In fact, the text concludes, "the leader of the Tibetans and his clique continue to deny reality: the Tibetan people are the owners of their land, they enjoy ample democratic rights and vast economic growth, and they have free access to their ancestral culture".