  China should talk to Dalai Lama U.S. diplomat has harsh words for Beijing after meeting with Tibetan leader at U-M. Gregg Krupa / The Detroit News ANN ARBOR -- The Bush administration's top diplomat on Tibet met with the Dalai Lama at the University of Michigan on Monday and called for dialogue between China and the Tibetan leader and for unfettered access to the Tibetan territories for reporters and other interested individuals. "President Bush steadfastly supports the need for dialogue between His Holiness and Chinese leaders," said Undersecretary of State Paula Dobriansky, who arrived on campus on the final day of the Dalai Lama's visit, amid a continuing crackdown on Tibetan dissidents by the Chinese government. After the meeting, the U.S. Department of State issued a statement that said, in part: "Under Secretary Dobriansky and the Dalai Lama discussed the current situation in Tibet and the need for China to permit journalists and others reasonable access to all Tibetan areas." While the Chinese government -- as well as students and immigrants, who demonstrated against the Dalai Lama in Ann Arbor in large numbers on Sunday -- urged reporters to visit the Tibetan territories to observe conditions, the government allows extremely limited access to foreigners, including reporters. "I just want to express my deep appreciation to your government, your president, both houses (of congress), to you and to the secretary of state," the Dalai Lama said, as he sat next to Dobriansky. "At this point, we need your help." The session concluded a four-day trip to the university by the Tibetan and Buddhist leader. While Dobriansky took no questions from a corps of reporters from the United States, Japan and China who gathered for the session with the media before the meeting, she did write an opinion piece in Monday's edition of The Washington Post. She said that the protests and violence in the Tibetan territories result from "China's long-standing repression of religious, cultural and other freedoms for the Tibetan people." "The recent protests are manifestations of lingering frustration at a lack of progress in addressing the Tibetans' concerns," she wrote. "When the Chinese government uses harsh rhetoric against the Dalai Lama, or steps up 'patriotic education campaigns' that that include forced denunciations of the Dalia Lama, its serves only to further enflame tensions. "China should immediately cease the repressive measures directed at Tibetans seeking to practice their religion and preserve their cultural identity, and should release those detained for peacefully protesting or expressing their views." |