BERLIN – Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama spoke out in Berlin in support of the international peace movement while the Chinese embassy accused him of pursuing separatist activities under the cover of religion.
Without specifically mentioning the US-led war against Iraq, the 1989 Nobel peace prizewinner told a German Christian gathering the world had recently experienced a grave crisis and many had opposed war.
“The peace movement worldwide is very encouraging,” he told 5,000 listeners attending an ecumenical festival bringing together Germany’s Protestant and Catholic Churches for the first time.
“Beside governments, some individuals and non-governmental organisations should have a more active role,” he added.
The Chinese embassy reacted angrily to a meeting between him and German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer, calling it a flagrant contradiction of Germany’s One-China policy.
Fischer had earlier assured the Dalai Lama Germany supported Tibetan aspirations to religious and cultural autonomy under Chinese rule.
The Buddhist spiritual leader told the religious gathering all religions possessed the same potential for peace.
“Religious faith and human qualities and two different things,” he said: “Inner happiness and peace should rest on these qualities. Religion plays a very important role to sustain those qualities.”
After the Tibetan spiritual leader held brief talks with Fischer and parliamentary speaker Wolfgang Thierse, the Chinese embassy fired off an angry statement:
“We are firmly opposed (to the meetings) and express herewith our deepest displeasure,” it said.
“Tibet is part of Chinese territory and issues related to Tibet are exclusively an internal Chinese matter. No one abroad has the right to interfere.”
The embassy said the Dalai Lama was “not a normal religious person but rather a political figure who under the cover of religion pursues separatist activities.”
“The meeting of German politicians with the Dalai Lama contradicts the One-China policy of the (German) Federal Government, hurts the feelings of the Chinese people (and) has a negative impact on the existing good relations between China and Germany.
“We hope very much that the government will continue to stand by its One-China policy and refrain from anything that runs counter to this policy.”
Fischer reaffirmed Germany’s “One-China” policy during the meeting with the Dalai Lama, saying Tibet was part of the People’s Republic, a spokesman said Friday.
“The German government considers, like its European Union partners, that Tibet is part of the state of China,” the spokesman said.
But Fischer had assured the visitor Germany supported “Tibetan demands for religious and cultural autonomy.”
The Dalai Lama and his followers fled Tibet in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule and set up base in Dharamsala, a hill station in the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh.
He is now seeking Tibetan autonomy within China rather than independence and has been publicly supportive of re-engaging with Beijing.
China, which has occupied Tibet since 1951, has been accused of trying to wipe out Tibet’s Buddhist-based culture through political and religious repression and a flood of ethnic Chinese immigration.
