PARIS – The Dalai Lama said talks with China over greater autonomy for Tibet must yield results in the next two or three years, or he could no longer justify his conciliatory approach to youths clamouring for independence.
Tibet’s exiled Buddhist spiritual leader told the French daily Le Figaro in an interview published on Monday that he welcomed a thawing in relations with China, although no real progress had been made in the talks.
The Dalai Lama said that Tibetan youth organisations, including the Tibetan Youth Congress, disagreed with his demand for increased autonomy and were demanding instead full independence for the Himalayan territory.
“We must be patient. The renewal of contacts with China only goes back to last year. But if in two or three years it does not produce any result, it will be difficult for me to explain to young people the validity of the middle way approach,” he said.
“However, I hope to succeed,” the paper quoted him as saying.
Tibetan envoys visited China in late May as part of a contact-building process that began last year when the Tibetan god-king’s envoys visited China. That trip was the first direct contact between them since 1993.
“We welcome this new direct contact with China. Our envoys said the meetings took place in a very friendly spirit. We hope there will be others and that they will lead to serious discussions,” said the Dalai Lama.
“For the moment, there is no real fundamental change. Since the 1980s we have been asking for greater autonomy and no longer independence. The Chinese are fully aware of this,” he added.
The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 and runs a government in exile in the north Indian town of Dharamsala.
Analysts say the re-establishment of contacts between China and the Dalai Lama’s representatives reflects a slight softening in Beijing’s position as it tests the waters for some kind of political solution.
Beijing, which imposed Communist rule on Tibet after its troops entered in 1950, established direct contact with the Dalai Lama in 1979 and allowed him to send representatives on four fact-finding missions up to 1985.
