Published by World Tibet Network News - Thursday, September 19, 1996By Michael Perry
SYDNEY, Australia (Reuter) - The Dalai Lama urged the world Wednesday to reassess policies toward China to help achieve Tibet's autonomy as Beijing raised the exiled spiritual leader's foreign trips to a new crisis point.
The winner of the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize for his peaceful campaign for Tibetan autonomy said the Tienanmen Square massacre in Beijing in 1989 had failed to silence calls for freedom, democracy and human rights in China.
"A transformation from the current totalitarian regime in Beijing into one which is more open, responsive and liberal is thus inevitable," he told reporters during a visit to Australia which has infuriated China's leadership.
China's Foreign Ministry warned this week that foreign heads of government who accorded the Dalai Lama the honor of a meeting were placing lucrative trade and business ties with Beijing in jeopardy. Nonetheless, Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he intends to meet Tibet's exiled god-king.
The Dalai Lama said Chinese "repression and political persecution" against Tibet's 6 million inhabitants had recently reached a new peak.
"In Tibet our people are being marginalized and discriminated against," he said. "The destruction of cultural artefacts and traditions coupled with the mass influx of Chinese into Tibet amounts to cultural genocide."
The Dalai Lama said it was time for the international community to reassess its policies towards China in order to influence Beijing's attitude toward Tibet and to ensure China emerges from its transition as a reliable, peaceful and constructive member of the international community.
"I have always drawn attention to the need to bring Beijing into the mainstream of world democracy and have spoken against any idea of isolating and containing China," said the spiritual leader who has lived in exile in India since an abortive uprising against Chinese rule in Tibet in 1959.
"To attempt to do so would be morally incorrect and politically impractical. Today, I wish to reiterate our willingness to start negotiations with China anytime, anywhere without any preconditions."
The Dalai Lama said he was not calling for independence for Tibet, but self-government. He said Chinese scholars outside China were discussing the possibility of a federated China which would incorporate an autonomous Tibet.
He said an autonomous Tibet should be based on a democractic system of government, with a multi-party system of parliament, a legislature, executive and judiciary.
"Future Tibet must have a fully democratic system of government," the Dalai Lama said, adding he did not wish to occupy any positions in a future government.
The Dalai Lama said a future Tibet should also be a non-militarized zone, returning Tibet to its historical role as a buffer state between China and India.
International parliamentarians meeting in Beijing have also demanded an end to Chinese repression in Tibet.
Norwegian and Austrian delegates to the 96th conference of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, or IPU, called on China to boost protection of human rights during a general debate Tuesday.
Tibetans had no religious or political freedom and their ethnic rights were being disregarded, an IPU summary of the debate quoted Austrian delegate Josef Hochtl as saying.