By ANGUS MCDONALD
DHARMSALA, India – The Dalai Lama on Tuesday led Tibetans in prayers aimed at minimizing suffering if war comes to Iraq.
Speaking in Dharmsala, the headquarters of the Tibetan government in exile, the Dalai Lama said a U.S.-led attack was all but inevitable. He called on the American government to make a major humanitarian effort to minimize the fallout from the conflict.
The Tibetan spiritual leader led the 90-minute prayer session to open the annual eight-day Monlam prayer festival, which began Tuesday, the eighth day of the Tibetan new year.
Speaking in Tibetan to a gathering of monks, nuns and Western devotees at Dharmsala’s Tsuglakhang temple, the Dalai Lama said there was little or nothing that could be done to avert the world’s only superpower from attacking Iraq.
“War is no longer a viable solution to international conflicts,” he said. “It may bring short term benefits to the winners, but can only cause more problems in the long term.”
The United States has said it is prepared to go to war – even without U.N. authorization – unless Iraq proves it has disarmed itself of weapons of mass destruction.
The Dalai Lama praised nation-building and humanitarian efforts which followed the U.S.-led attack on Afghanistan in 2001, saying the modern concept of war had changed.
The worst-hit victims of war are the innocent, he said.
“The leaders can find places to hide, but the common people will suffer,” he said. “Bullets cannot distinguish between the oppressed and the oppressor.”
The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989 for his nonviolent efforts to free Tibet from Chinese rule, and is regarded as a leading champion of global peace.
But he had made no outright statements about the conflict in Iraq, despite widespread international opposition to an attack without the sanction of the United Nations.
At a press conference at the Buddhist holy city of Bodh Gaya in January, the Dalai Lama said that weapons of mass destruction were bad and should be eliminated, but by peaceful means if possible.
