Dalai Lama Asks Oscar
Arias For Help
Initiating Dialogue With
China
Costa Rican President
and Nobel Peace Prize
laureate, Oscar Arias,
said that the
Dalai Lama has asked him
to help start talks with
China over unrest in
Tibet.
Arias said the Dalai
Lama sent him a letter
asking for help
initiating a dialogue in
which "we can sit down
and talk like civilized
people."
"Nobody is asking for
independence for Tibet,"
Arias said. "The Dalai
Lama has never asked for
that. What is at stake
is preserving the
autonomy of Tibet."
Several days of
anti-government protests
led by monks spiraled
into violence on March
14 in Tibet's capital,
Lhasa. China's
government has said that
at least 22 people have
died in Lhasa, while
Tibetan rights groups
say nearly 140 Tibetans
have been killed.
The Chinese government
has accused the Dalai
Lama of inciting the
protests, an accusation
he has denied.
Today in Americas
Arias described the
exiled Tibetan spiritual
leader as a personal
friend, and said he was
disturbed by the scenes
of violence in Tibet.
"I saw scenes on
television in which
Tibetans were busting up
Chinese stores, which
led to the army being
called in and the death
of innocent people," he
said. "That just
shouldn't happen."
Arias won the Nobel
Peace Price in 1987 for
helping broker an end to
Central America's civil
wars. |
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