Published by: World Tibet Network News, Sunday, July 7th 1996

By: Bhuchung K. Tsering

Special to the Washington Times

Washington Times, July 6, 1996

The Dalai Lama is 61 today, a time when China is using all its diplomatic strength to stop any outside show of support for the people of Tibet.

Despite the lack of a positive response from China, the Dalai Lama remains convinced that there could be a solution to the Tibetan problem through what he calls the "middle-way" approach.

During a speech to the delegates to the Second International Conference of Tibet Support Groups in Bonn, on June 15, the Dalai Lama reiterated his commitment to a solution that also would consider China's interests.

This means not asking for total independence of Tibet, but genuine self-rule for Tibetans within the Chinese framework.

The meeting in Germany symbolized the obstacles the Dalai Lama would have to confront in his effort to garner international support. Chinese officials brought an enormous amount of pressure on the German Government -- first to cancel the Tibet meeting and, when that failed, to bar the Dalai Lama and leaders of the Tibetan government in exile from participating in it.

Commercial concerns forced Germany to acquiesce to part of the Chinese demands. Official funding to Friedrich Naumann Foundation, the organization that hosted the meeting, was withdrawn.

Tibetan delegates from India, Britain and the United States were asked to sign a note by the respective German embassies to the effect that they would have no connection with the Tibetan government-in-exile before their visas could be issued.

But this was withdrawn at the last moment, possibly because of fears of an outcry by the German public.

The German experience is similar to the one that the Dalai Lama and the people of Tibet face in the United States.

Congress consistently has been very supportive of the Dalai Lama and Tibet. But no similar gesture has been shown by the Clinton administration. Whenever the Administration was urged to adopt a stronger measure against China on Tibet, it argued that such a move would provoke China into diverting its trade ties to other countries.

The recent experience in Germany has shown that there is a need for a multilateral approach if the international community wants China to join the mainstream on an equal status. Multilateral groups such as the Group of Seven, the European Union and the World Trade Organization could be appropriate for adopting a common strategy to encourage China to respect internationally-recognized norms of human behavior.

A case in point is the current campaign being launched in Tibet by the Chinese authorities to prevent the Tibetan people from having anything to do with the Dalai Lama. Until now, although China rejected claims for political authority by the Dalai Lama, it acknowledged tacitly his spiritual authority over the people of Tibet.

The recent crackdown in Tibet over the possession of the Dalai Lama's photos as well as the disclosure of an official plan to erase his influence point to a campaign to deny him his position as a religious leader.

According to a June 15 Reuters news agency report from Beijing, the ninth five- year plan of the Chinese rulers in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa gives top priority to "the battle to stamp out the exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, as religious leader of the deeply Buddhist Himalayan land."

In April, an edict was issued to all temples and monasteries in Tibet to pull down from public display all photos of the Dalai Lama. In May, when officials went to the Gaden monastery near Lhasa to implement the edict, there was resistance from the monks, sparking a clash between the monks and security forces accompanying the officials. There were reports that a few monks and several more people were wounded.

The Chinese authorities subsequently closed Gaden and other nearby monasteries to the public.

Some analysts of the Tibetan scene believe China is waiting for this Dalai Lama to die so that it can have total control over Tibet.

Despite China's physical occupation of Tibet for more than three decades, the Tibetan people's loyalty has remained with the Dalai Lama, creating the biggest irritant for the Chinese leadership.

China seems to be harboring a mistaken belief that it may be able to control a future Dalai Lama. One reason why an atheist state like China interfered in a deeply religious tradition of the recognition of the Panchen Lama, another senior Tibetan leader, was to gain control over the future Dalai Lama.

At the end of last year, China rejected a boy chosen by the Dalai Lama as the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama and instead forced its own choice on the Tibetan people.

But that will not shift the loyalty of the Tibetan people away from the Dalai Lama. The life story of the previous Panchen Lama is a case in point.

Despite being groomed by the successive Chinese leadership as a rival to the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama took every possible opportunity to make it clear that he did not question the authority of the Dalai Lama over Tibet.

China's miscalculation concerning the Dalai Lama may have serious consequences -- not just in Tibet, but for the entire region as well.

So far, despite criticism from within a section of the Tibetan community, the Dalai Lama has continued to stick by his efforts to find a peaceful solution to the Tibetan problem.

There is increasing frustration among some of the Tibetan people who feel the path of peace does not seem to be bearing fruit.

Similarly, there is a move among the Tibetans in exile to adopt a more forceful approach that would include non-violent resistance and civil disobedience in Tibet. So far, because the Dalai Lama commands the respect and loyalty of his people, the Tibetan struggle has been on with the least bloodshed, considering it has gone on for nearly four decades.

But given the increasing frustration within the Tibetan community, both in exile and within Tibet, the absence of the Dalai Lama from the scene may have grave implications. Any eruption of a major violence in Tibet would affect the stability of the entire region.