U.S. envoy to see Dalai Lama in Michigan next week

Above: Exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, The Dalai Lama, speaks to reporters during a news conference in Seattle April 13, 2008.

REUTERS/Robert Sorbo
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The United States' special envoy for Tibet will meet the Dalai Lama next week while the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader is visiting the United States, U.S. officials said on Monday.

The get-together in Michigan on April 21 will be the 11th such meeting between U.S. official Paula Dobriansky and the Dalai Lama, State Department spokesman Tom Casey said. He did not expect Dobriansky to offer new initiatives at the meeting.

The United States says Chinese authorities should also meet the Dalai Lama to discuss the situation in Tibet, where China cracked down on protests last month.

But U.S. officials have resisted pressure for a boycott of Olympic ceremonies in China in August over Beijing's actions in Tibet, saying they prefer to work through quiet diplomacy to pressure the Chinese instead.

"They (Dobriansky and the Dalai Lama) are going to be talking about our view that the Chinese authorities ought to engage in a discussion with the Dalai Lama," Casey told reporters.

"He's spoken ... about contacts that have occurred or are occurring between some of his representatives and Chinese officials. I'm sure we'll be interested in hearing about that and any other thoughts and ideas he might have about the situation there," Casey added.

The Dalai Lama fled into exile in India after a failed uprising against Communist rule in 1959, eight years after the Chinese military marched in to annex Tibet.


Source: Reuters