Source: RNE Radio 1, Madrid, in Spanish 1000 gmt 14 Apr 97

Text of report by Spanish radio

[Presenter] We stay in Catalonia to follow the visit of the Dalai Lama, who will visit the Basque Country this afternoon. Carlos Cuesta reports from the Catalan parliament:

[Cuesta] The Dalai Lama is currently meeting the foreign affairs committee of the Catalan parliament. Tenzin Gyatso, the Nobel Peace Prize winner in 1989, has come to Barcelona in a campaign organized in support of 20,000 Tibetan children exiled to India. Tenzin Gyatso signed the parliament's book of honour and gave its members a white neckerchief [khada - Tibetan ceremonial scarf] as a gesture of goodwill.

The Dalai Lama said that he felt close to Catalonia because Tibet was trying to obtain autonomy and here [in Catalonia] democratic autonomy had been obtained. In other parts of his speech, in which he offered advice to representatives of the Catalan parliamentary groups, he said that it was good for people to have a sense of love for others, that great material progress had been made in the world, but that we should ask ourselves if this has brought the happiness we are looking for and that mental happiness could not be achieved by material means.

At the moment, the Dalai Lama is still speaking before the foreign affairs committee of the Catalan parliament.