Canberra Grants 'Official' Meeting to Dalai
(The Age | Melbourne | May 21, 2002)
The Federal Government has agreed to allow senior officials to meet the Dalai Lama to discuss human rights abuses in Tibet, a move likely to infuriate China.
The last-minute approval of the meeting came after allegations that Prime Minister John Howard had acceded to Chinese demands that no government officials meet the exiled Tibetan leader during his Australian visit. Requests for the government to meet the Dalai Lama were lodged a month ago, but no response had been offered until now.
Although Mr Howard and senior ministers will not meet the Dalai Lama, the official discussion of human rights in the Chinese-ruled province goes to the heart of Chinese concerns about the Dalai Lama. A Chinese embassy spokesman said the Australian Government had been told that China opposed any officials meeting the Dalai Lama.
"We believe the Dalai Lama is not a religious figure but a political figure in exile attempting to split China," the spokesman said. He said China's views had been made clear to Australia.
The Dalai Lama's national tour director, Alan Molloy, said he only learnt of the meeting when contacted by The Age. "It will be an opportunity for the Australians involved in the human rights dialogue with China to brief the Dalai Lama on what they have achieved," he said. "But it cannot substitute for a meeting with Mr Howard."
A spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs said the meeting had been requested by the organisers of the Dalai Lama's visit and was an "official meeting" with government officials as requested. "We are giving them members of the Australia-China human rights dialogue delegation," she said.
The delegation is appointed by the government to discuss human rights concerns with China. The president of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Alice Tay, heads the delegation and will preside over the meeting. It is believed the meeting was initially requested by the Tibetan Information Office.
The Foreign Affairs spokeswoman denied suggestions that the government had done a deal with China over the Dalai Lama's visit. "We've never given any undertakings that Australian officials will not meet the Dalai Lama," she said.
Mr Howard has said there was no reason for him to meet the Dalai Lama as they had met during a previous visit in 1996. He also said he would be away for the visit, although he will now be returning from a visit to China several days before the Dalai Lama leaves.
In the lead-up to the visit, China had placed pressure on state and federal governments not to recognise the tour. Foreign Affairs blocked a proposal for an official lunch for the Dalai Lama to be held in Federal Parliament's Great Hall. It was confirmed yesterday that the Chinese consulate in Sydney asked the Sydney Opera House to cancel a concert performance this Sunday in the Dalai Lama's honour.
Friends of Tibet (INDIA),
PO Box 16674, Bombay 400050
www.friendsoftibet.org