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Dalai Lama's Brother Urges
China to Lift Tibet Curbs, Open Talks
August 08, 2002
WASHINGTON-The elder brother of Tibet's spiritual
leader, the Dalai Lama, urged China on Thursday to
meet with Tibetan exile leaders and lift curbs on its
Tibetan citizens after his first return visit to the
Himalayan region in 50 years, Radio Free Asia (RFA)
reports.
Gyalo Thondup, speaking in the dominant Tibetan
dialect, Uke, also said he was “very hopeful” for
Tibet’s future. He has just completed a month-long
visit to China that included stops in Beijing, Tibet,
and the northwestern region of Xinjiang. He plans to
leave Hong Kong for India, his primary residence, on
Monday, he told RFA’s Tibetan-language call-in program.
“In the past 23 years, I have been to China many times,”
Thondup said. “Now I see great hope. Based on my
personal experiences with Chinese officials, I am very
hopeful for Tibet’s situation in the future.” But he
urged Chinese authorities to meet personally with
Tibetan exile leaders, preserve Tibetan culture, and
permit Tibetans to travel and communicate freely.
“The most important thing is for Chinese President
Jiang Zemin and His Holiness the Dalai Lama to meet
face-to-face,” he said. “The Chinese government should
respect the rights of Tibetans as equals.”
“I discussed two major issues with the [Tibetan
Autonomous Region] officials,” he said. “First,
Buddhist monasteries… must be thoroughly renovated and
the special qualities of the Tibetan race, culture,
and language maintained. Second, Tibetans inside and
outside Tibet should be allowed to move freely and
communicate without restrictions.”
China’s late paramount leader, Deng Xiaoping, promised
Thondup in 1979 that he would allow Tibetans to travel
freely inside and outside Tibet and meet their
relatives, he said, but that hasn’t happened. “My trip
went very well. I have not been back to Lhasa and my
hometown in Amdo [Prefecture] for 50 years,” he said.
“Visiting these places and seeing these situations in
person was very helpful.”
Over 13 days, he said, he met with Tibetan villagers
and Chinese officials in the capital, Lhasa, as well
as at Samye monastery, in the Lhoka district, and in
the towns of Gyantse, Kongpo Nyentri, Shigatse, and
Tsethang.
Thondup cited “great changes inside Tibet, including
many good roads and significant development in the
cities.”
“The Tibetan and Chinese leadership should meet
face-to-face, in person,” he said. “The main issue is
to achieve progress inside Tibet by improving the
living conditions of Tibetans in health and
transportation, for example.”
“In my opinion, there have been great changes in the
outlook of the Chinese government in terms of policy
toward minorities in the Tibetan Autonomous Region. I
have great hope now. The central and local Chinese
governments want changes, and those changes are
considered precious and important.”
Thondup said he hoped to visit Tibet again, possibly
for three months including one month in Amdo, one
month in Kham, and one month in Utsang.
Thondup has acted as an envoy between Beijing and the
Dalai Lama in the past. He last visited Lhasa in 1952
and Amdo, where he and his siblings were born, in
1950. Beijing, which has drawn international criticism
for its heavy-handed treatment of Tibet, has rebuffed
previous efforts by the Dalai Lama to engage it in a
dialogue about the future of Tibet.
Now retired and living mainly in northern India,
Thondup worked with the CIA in the 1950s and 60s in
waging a guerrilla war against Chinese forces in
Tibet. That campaign failed, and American backing for
it ended during Washington's rapprochement with
Beijing in the early 1970s.
On orders from Mao Zedong, Chinese troops invaded and
annexed Tibet in 1950 in what Beijing calls a "peaceful
liberation" from feudalism. Chafing under Chinese rule,
Tibetans staged an uprising in 1959. When it failed,
the Dalai Lama and nearly 100,000 of his followers
were forced to flee across the Himalayas to northern
India and Nepal.
The Dalai Lama, born Tenzin Gyatso, won the 1989 Nobel
Prize for Peace in recognition of his long-running,
nonviolent opposition to Chinese rule.
Radio Free Asia (RFA) broadcasts news, information,
and cultural programming to Asian listeners who lack
regular access to full and balanced reporting in their
domestic media. Through its broadcasts and call-in
programs, RFA aims to fill a critical gap in the lives
of people across Asia--giving them a voice as well as
a means of connecting with the world and with one
another.
Created by Congress in 1994 and incorporated in 1996,
RFA currently broadcasts in Burmese, Cantonese, Khmer,
Korean, Lao, Mandarin, the Wu dialect, Vietnamese,
Tibetan (Uke, Amdo, and Kham), and Uyghur. It adheres
to the highest standards of journalism and aims to
exemplify accuracy, balance, and fairness in its
editorial content.
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