World Tibet Network News Wednesday, February 04, 1998

BEIJING, Feb 4 (AFP) - Veteran Chinese dissident Xu Wenli Wednesday called on Beijing to open talks with the Dalai Lama as a first step in granting greater autonomy to Tibet, but not independence.

In an open letter addressed to the government and to the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, Xu, 54, called for a new approach to the sensitive issue of Tibet, but asked Tibetans to accept the changes in their country and not work against the Chinese government.

"The Chinese government has always said that everything can be discussed provided the Dalai Lama is not seeking Tibetan independence. It's time the Chinese authorities stood by their words," the dissident said in his letter, a copy of which was sent to AFP.

He called on the spiritual leader, who fled to India in 1959 following an abortive uprising against the Chinese, to "use his immense influence to persuade" pro-independence activists to give up their plans.

The Dalai Lama should also convince his fellow Tibetans to "respect the changes" in their country over the last few decades and "hold a grudge towards the Chinese governemnt," he said.

In October 1996, two other dissidents, Wang Xizhe and Liu Xiaobo, openly called for the independence of Tibet, which was occupied by the Chinese army in 1951.

Liu was immediately arrested and sentenced to three years in a reeducation camp, while Wang was able to escape to Hong Kong, then still a British colony, and eventually to the United States.

Xu in his letter echoed a call for talks by the Dalai Lama made in an interview published in the French magazine Le Figaro Tuesday. In the interview the Dalai Lama said he had offered Beijing a solution which would meet them halfway. "Beijing gives Tibet real autonomy while retaining control over its foreign policy and military."

"I call on the Chinese government to give up its ostrich like policy towards problems regarding ethnic minorities and give a response to the Dalai Lama so that a peaceful solution can be found to the problem of Tibet," Xu said in his letter.

Xu said Tibet should be given the same sort of autonomy as the former British colony of Hong Kong which reverted to Chinese sovereignty in July, 1997, together with respect for its ethnic traditions, freedom of religious worship and be declared a nuclear free zone.

Turning to the Dalai Lama, Xu said it was due to his "rational policies and pacifism that we have been able to avoid terrorist activity in Tibet." "We hope that the Dalai Lama will stand by his word and not attempt to restore a theocracy in Tibet, but will introduce a constitutional and democratic system to produce a new, peaceful, Tibet," Xu said.

Xu, was one of the leading pro-democracy figures in the 1978-79 democracy wall movement in Beijing along with Wei Jingsheng. Arrested in 1981 he was sentenced to 15 years in prison for counter-revolutionary activities. He was released in 1993.