(The Hindu, India, Saturday, October 9, 1999)

Dalai Lama for direct talks with China

GURUPURA TIBETAN SETTLEMENT, OCT. 8. The deadlock over the question of Tibet that continues between the Governments of China and Tibet due to lack of positive response from the former may not continue for long with increasing international pressure for an early solution to the issue through bilateral negotiations.

``I have stopped putting any pressure on the United Nations to implement its resolutions in favour of `self-determination' in Tibet since 1965 and in my sincere efforts, I preferred direct negotiations without any preconditions with the Chinese Government but the suggestion was rejected on various pretexts. I am fully committed to the path of non-violence for a peaceful solution to the Tibet question,'' the Dalai Lama, the head of the Tibetan Government in exile, told presspersons here on Thursday.

He said there was a positive approach on the part of China towards the issue until the Eighties, but it continued to be negative since then. There was no change in the stand of the Chinese Government inspite of the growing international pressure on China.

Replying to questions, he said he was not worried about the reports which said U.N. would not recognise him as the political leader of the Tibetans. ``I consider myself as an ordinary Buddhist monk.''

Asked to react on the latest Chinese warning to India against extending support to the Dalai Lama on the grounds that the latter was trying to separate Tibet from China, he categorically said that he was not seeking any kind of separation.