World Tibet Network News Monday, June 29, 1998

NEW DELHI, June 29 (AFP) - The Tibetan government-in-exile headed by the Dalai Lama on Monday said it was ready for unconditional talks with Beijing saying a decades-old demand for Tibet's independence had been dropped. A statement from the government's headquarters in the northern town of Dharamshala also hailed US President Bill Clinton for asking China to enter into negotiations with the exiled spiritual leader. Referring to Clinton's ongoing China visit and talks on Tibet with his Chinese counterpart Jiang Zemin, it said: "Just as President Clinton pointed out, we believe that the question of Tibet is fundamentally political and not religious in nature."

Towards this end His Holiness the Dalai Lama has made a number of overtures mutually-acceptable solution. "Nobody can change the past."However, his Holiness feels that we should not be encumbered by the past. What is important is the future, for which he has stated very unequivocally that he is not seeking independence. "We hope President Jiang Zemin will respond positively to this solution," the statement by the Department of Information and International Relations of the Tibetan government said. The communique, however, said Jiang's statement that the Dalai Lama had to recognize Taiwan as a "province of China" before talks were held on Tibet had already been answered by the spiritual-cum-temporal leader. "His Holiness had said during his March 1997 visit to Taiwan that this is a matter which must be discussed and decided between China and the people of Taiwan. Confrontation and use of military force will help neither China, nor Taiwan."

China, which claims its sovereignty over Tibet dates back to the 13th century, "liberated" the region in 1951. The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule and Beijing has so far refused to meet with him charging he is working for the independence of Tibet, a position which the Dalai Lama has denied. Confrontation between the Dalai Lama and the Beijing government rose to a peak in 1995 when the spiritual leader unilaterally named the reincarnation of the Panchen Lama, the second highest figure in Tibetan Buddhism. In response, Beijing ordered all pictures of the Dalai Lama to be removed from monasteries and temples and launched a bitter campaign to discredit him. Jiang revealed on Saturday that the Chinese government had opened "several channels of communication" with the Dalai Lama. But Chinese officials blamed the exiled leader for blocking the talks. The Dalai Lama's insistence on independence for the Himalayan territory was splitting the "motherland," making talks

with him impossible, a foreign ministry spokesman said in Beijing.