Dalai Lama and China plan second round of talks

The Dalai Lama’s envoys and Chinese officials are planning a second round of talks, China’s state-run news agency said today.

The announcement came after the two sides held their first meeting since violent anti-government protests and a subsequent crackdown in Tibet in March.

Xinhua News Agency, which quoted unidentified sources, did not say when or where the next round of meetings would be held. The report said that Chinese officials “answered patiently” questions raised by the Dalai Lama’s envoys at the meeting yesterday in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen.

“The two sides agreed another round of contact would be held at an appropriate time,” Xinhua quoted the sources as saying.

But Xinhua added that the Chinese officials told the Dalai Lama’s envoys the violent protests in March “had given rise to new obstacles for resuming contacts and consultations with the Dalai side.”

As the two parties gathered, President Hu Jintao said in Beijing he hoped for a “positive outcome” and that the “door of dialogue remains open”, Xinhua reported earlier.

Xinhua said the meeting took place “at the repeated requests made by the Dalai side”.

It added: “The central government hoped that to create conditions for the next round of contact and consultation, the Dalai side would take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games.”

The meeting’s exact location in Shenzhen, close to Hong Kong, was not announced. A large group of foreign reporters waited outside a palm tree-lined statehouse compound in suburban Shenzhen that was believed to be the meeting venue. But no sign of the parties was seen.

The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he was not behind the recent unrest, and that his envoys planned to ask China to address the accusations, said Samdhong Rinpoche, prime minister of the self-declared Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharmsala, India.

The Dalai Lama’s side also wanted to push for an easing of tensions in Tibetan areas of China, Mr Rinpoche said, adding that the talks would last a day or two.

But even as the talks took place, China kept up its verbal attacks on the Dalai Lama.

Xinhua quoted Chinese experts on Tibet as saying the Tibetan Youth Congress, an exile group, was dedicated to separating Tibet from China and was the “armed spearhead of the 14th Dalai Lama group”.

It quoted a researcher from the Beijing-based China Tibetology Research Centre as saying the Tibetan Youth Congress was behind the March 14 riots.

“We hope the 14th Dalai Lama could truly give up ’Tibet independence’, stop secessionist activities, stop instigating violence, stop disrupting the Beijing Olympics, effectively prevent TYC’s violence and denounce its terrorist acts,” Xinhua quoted Liu Hongji as saying.

The Dalai Lama was represented by Lodi Gyari and Kelsang Gyaltsen. Zhu and Sitar, who goes by one name, are vice ministers of the United Front Work Department, which deals with influential people in groups outside China’s Communist Party.

International critics have accused China of heavy-handed tactics in quelling anti-government riots and protests in Tibet and Tibetan areas of western China. Some experts believe Beijing agreed to meet the envoys to ease that criticism ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.

China says 22 people died in violence in Tibet’s capital of Lhasa in March, while overseas Tibet supporters say many times that number died in protests and a subsequent crackdown.

The Dalai Lama, who fled Tibet during a failed uprising in 1959, says he is seeking meaningful autonomy for Tibet rather than independence from Chinese rule.