Chandigarh, September 7 – Appealing to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee for fresh talks with China on the Tibetan cause, the All India Tibet Support Group (TSG) conference here today felt that the Tibetan cultural and spiritual heritage was threatened with extinction due to a large-scale migration of Chinese to Tibet.
The three-day conference, on its concluding day today, also appealed to the Union government to ”reorient its policy towards Tibet from expression of sympathy to extending political pro-active support”.
The delegates, in a unanimously passed resolution, urged the Union government to review the ‘Joint Declaration’ signed in Beijing between India and China in July 2003 with a view to removing any doubts about the future of Tibet.
It wanted India to facilitate conclusive negotiations, without pre-conditions, between the Tibetan government-in-exile and the Peoples republic of China by appointing a coordinator on Tibet as soon as possible.
In his address, the prime minister of the Dharamsala-based Tibetan government-in-exile, Prof Samdhong Rimpoche, said the Sino-Indian relations held great global significance and only this common platform between the two big nations could be positively utilised to save Tibet.
”We not only hope for support from India, but also several sections in China, which are willing to listen to our demand for autonomy to Tibet,” he said.
Appreciating the Dalai Lama’s suggestion to convert Tibet into ”a zone of Ahimsa (non-violence)”, the adopted resolution recognised ”the 2200 years of spiritual, cultural, traditional and economic bond between Tibet and India and the invaluable role of Tibet as a buffer state between India and China”.
More than 170 delegates from 15 states across the country had assembled here for the conference.
Among the major Tibetan support groups who participated in the conference were the Core Group for Tibetan Cause, India-Tibet Friendship Society, Himalayan Committee for Action on Tibet, Bharat-Tibet Sahyog Manch and Friends of Tibet.
