Tibetan leader addressing conference attendees in Nantes, France 8-15-08 (Reuters)
Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama (L) poses with France's first lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy during the inauguration of the Buddhist Lerab Ling temple in Roqueredonde, southern France. The Dalai Lama denounced Chinese repression in Tibet on a trip to France that has fuelled tensions between Paris and Beijing (AFP/POOL/Pascal Guyot).
Herve Gavard (8/22/08)
ROQUEREDONDE, France (
AFP) -- The
Dalai Lama denounced Chinese repression in Tibet when he met French Foreign Minister Bernard
Kouchner Friday on a trip to France that has fuelled tensions between Paris and Beijing.
His French interpreter, Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard, said "His Holiness (told
Kouchner).... that there is a certain form of brutal repression that continues parallel to the Olympic Games."
The only way China can "regain its respectability in the international community" was the "march towards democracy," the
Dalai Lama said, according to Ricard, who attended the meeting.
Kouchner, who made no public comment except to say the
Dalai Lama was "always welcome in France," was attending the inauguration of a Buddhist temple by the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader along with France's first lady Carla
Bruni-
Sarkozy.
The
Dalai Lama presented the pair with long white scarves, a Tibetan gesture of hospitality and respect, which they wore as they watched their host prostrate himself before a statue of the Buddha.
The spiritual leader made a speech in English after officially opening the temple in which he called for harmony between different religious traditions and for respect for the environment.
"We have the responsibility to take care of this planet," he said. "We must extend love to all creatures, trees, and beautiful things."
French human rights minister Rama
Yade and former prime minister Alain
Juppe were also at the event which was attended by about 2,000 people.
President Nicolas
Sarkozy declined to meet the
Dalai Lama, sparking accusations from the opposition Socialists that "the only guiding principle (of
Sarkozy's policy towards China) appears to be not to displease Beijing."
China accuses the
Dalai Lama of seeking independence for Tibet, a Himalayan territory ruled for the last six decades by Beijing, and of fomenting unrest to sabotage the Olympic Games currently under way.
Calling the Dalai Lama a "liar," Shugden practitioners hold banners which read "Give religious freedom to Shugden practitioners" in anti-Tibet protest just before a public conference of Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama in Nantes 8-15-08. He was is in France from 8/11-23/08 (Reuters/Stephane Mahe (FRANCE).
But the 73-year-old Nobel Peace prize winner insists he wants autonomy and religious freedom and not independence for Tibet.
China had cautioned Sarkozy that meeting the Dalai Lama would have "serious consequences" for bilateral relations, and Beijing warned France on Wednesday to deal prudently with the "important and sensitive" issue of Tibet.
Planned more than two years ago, the Dalai Lama's 12-day French visit which ends Saturday turned political after a Chinese crackdown on unrest in Tibet in March that sparked international outrage.
Sarkozy angered Beijing by threatening to boycott the opening of the Olympic Games following the crackdown. But he did finally attend the ceremony in Beijing on August 8.
The entourage of the Buddhist leader said he had not sought to see the French president and the Dalai Lama has repeated that his visit to France is not political and is mainly to give spiritual teaching to Buddhists here.
In an interview with France's Le Monde newspaper published Thursday, the Dalai Lama said Chinese troops fired on Tibetan protesters this week, as Beijing hosted the Olympics, and that at least 400 people have been killed since unrest erupted in March.
The spiritual leader denied a comment attributed to him by the paper that 140 people had died on Monday when the Chinese security forces opened fire on Tibetans. But his office said there had been casualties.
The incident happened in Garze, a Tibetan-majority town in China's Sichuan province near the border with Tibet, he said.
Chinese authorities in the area denied Friday when contacted by AFP that any such incident had occurred.
The Dalai Lama also told Le Monde that at least 400 Tibetans had been killed in the region around the Tibetan capital Lhasa since March, and 10,000 had been imprisoned in secret locations.
He said that in the run-up to the Beijing Olympics he had been hopeful of progress, encouraged by the commitment of Chinese President Hu Jintao to begin serious talks.
"But we were quickly disillusioned. Our envoys came up against a wall. There was no opening," he told the paper.
China sent troops into Tibet in 1950 and officially "liberated" it the following year. The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule.
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