"Tibet Talks Conclude With Conditions," WorldNews.com, July 4, 2008.

[Fractured English accompanied by an understandable eagerness to pump out the Tibetan party line combine to make discerning the factual core of this report difficult--but not impossible, I think. -jlt]

Dharmshala. Special Envoy for the Dalai Lama, Mr. Lodi Gyari and Envoy Mr. Kelsang Gyaltsen ended talks with Chinese government officials Thursday with no immediate reports of substantive progress on easing tensions in Tibet and Tibet issues, something the United States, France, UK and other foreign governments have been strongly urging on China.

A report on the talks in Chinese media contained no concessions to allow more cultural and religious autonomy for Tibet and Tibetan people in the wake of world wide protests this spring.

State media reported the conditions that the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama would be required to meet before the Chinese would agree to eighth round talks between two sides before the end of the year 2008.

The Dalai Lama must prove that he does not support activities that would disturb next month's Beijing Olympic Games 2008, and agree to "concretely curb" violent activities of groups advocating Tibetan independence.

The two envoys left Beijing on Thursday afternoon. They will brief the media on the latest round of discussions they held with the representatives of the Chinese leadership in Beijing after briefing the Dalai Lama, the Kashag and the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile tomorrow morning 5 July 2008, according to an official Tibetan media report.

Some Tibet experts had hoped for signs that the talks were more than a Chinese attempt to take international focus off Tibet until after the Beijing Olympic Games 2008. These experts found only slight shifts.

"After all they are implicitly accusing His Holiness the Dalai Lama of 'supporting' violence instead of directly insisting that he masterminds it," said Thomas???, a Tibet scholar from Austria. "I can't see this going down very well in Tibet or anywhere else."

Based on a report by WorldNet.com.Recommend this Post

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