His Holiness’ envoy urges EU’s Van Rompuy to speak out on Tibet[Monday, 16 May 2011, 5:23 p.m.]
DHARAMSHALA:
His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen has urged the EU
Council head Mr Herman Van Rompuy to speak out on the repression in
Tibet during his visit to China.
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Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen (left) with Special Envoy Kasur Lodi Gyari in Dharamsala/File
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Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen told EUobserver
in Brussels that Phuntsog, the 21-year-old monk of Kirti Monastery, who
set himself on fire in March, must have felt deeply disturbed as it is
against Buddhist teaching to take any form of life.After Phuntsog set himself on fire, the Chinese police beat him which was one of the causes of his tragic death. “In
Buddhism, the most important factor is motivation. If someone takes his
own life in order to draw attention to the problems of other Tibetans,
because they feel that there is nothing else they can do, because of
this motivation the act is not considered an act of violence,” he said.
Speaking on the eve of Van Rompuy’s visit to Beijing, envoy
Kelsang Gyaltsen urged the top EU official to confront China on human
rights just as the US did earlier this week.He said Van Rompuy
should ask to send an EU delegation to visit Ngaba, seek assurances of
better day-today treatment of Tibetans and urge Beijing to resume
bilateral talks with the Central Tibetan Administration.”If the
Chinese side does not show any positive signs, if it brushes off the
concern expressed by the EU, he should make public the EU’s
disappointment and criticise the despicable situation in Tibet,” envoy
Kelsang Gyaltsen noted. “if the EU does not take this opportunity, it
will send a very bad signal to hardliners in China that they can
continue to abuse the rights of Tibetan people with impunity from the
international community.”Van Rompuy’s spokesman Dirk De Backer
declined to give details when asked if Mr Rompuy will discuss Tibet
this weekend, although he confirmed that Mr Rompuy will speak on human
rights.Envoy Kelsang Gyaltsen noted that China seeks
international respectability, pointing to its effort in staging the
2008 Olympics and its hostile reaction to the 2010 Nobel laureate.He
said, “people in former Communist countries understand the situation in
Tibet because they remember their own experience in western Europe, the
general public has a lot of information about Tibet and they extend
their support to the just cause of Tibetan struggle.”
