DALAI LAMA'S AIDE REBUFFS BEIJING

The Herald Tribune, Wednesday 5 November, 1997

NEW DELHI - China's claim on Tibet is a "historical lie" that the Dalai Lama can never accept, an aide to the exiled Tibetan leader said in India Tuesday. The spokesman, Tempa Tsering, Who was reached at the Dalai Lama's exile administration in the northern Indian city of Dharamsala, also said that his leader was prepared to talk with Beijing on his region's future. But the two sides remain so far apart that it is unlikely negotiations will start soon, he added. Speaking last week during his visit to the United States, President Jiang Zemin of China laid out conditions that his government says the Dalai Lama must meet before talks can be held. Among them, Mr. Jiang said, "He must recognize publicly that Tibet is an inalienable pari of the People's Republic of China." The spokesman said Tuesday that the idea that Tibet was Chinese was a "fiction" the Dalai Lama would never accept and that lie "is on record saying that this would constitute an enormous historical lie, and he as a Buddhist monk would have no pa

rt in it." But he noted that the Dalai Lama was no longer calling for outright independence for his homeland. He has proposed leaving foreign affairs and defense in Beijing's hands while giving Tibetans control over domestic affairs - including the right to control migration to Tibet.