The Tibet-Intergroup

The Dalai Lama Meets the Austrian Chancellor

His Holiness the Dalai Lama visited Austria in Septmeber and met with the Austrian Chancellor, Alfred Gusenbauer. In Broadcast remarks after the meeting, Mr. Gusenbauer described relations between Austria and China as "very good" and said that Austria is a place of dialogue. However, the Chinese Embassy in Austria made protests about the meeting.

During his visit, the Dalai Lama went to the SOS Children's Village in Hinterbruehl, which is celebrating its golden jubilee. His Holiness also took part in a "Dialgue of Religious Leaders" together with Archbishop Phillip, a Ukrainian and head of the Department of Religious Training, Catechesis and Missionary work of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, Mr. Achmed El Tayyib, Egyptian and Rector of Alshar University of Ciaro, and Mr. David Rosen, Israeli and President of International Jewish Committee for Inter-Religious Consultations.

Before leaving Austria, His Holiness also attended the annual Waldzell meeting in the famous Abbey Stift Melk, and gave a public audience to 150 Tibetans living in Austria.

Tibet.net, official website of the Central Tibetan Administration, October 2007

63rd Tibet Intergroup Meeting

Wednseday 26 September 2007

Thomas Mann opened the meeting and referred to His Holiness the Dalai Lama's visit to Germany in July. Angela Merkel received His Holiness and was in fact the first Head of Government to do so. This sends a message to the world, and it was to be hoped that others would follow suit. Eva added that His Holiness had also visited Austria upon the invitation of the Austrian Chancellor.

Thomas introduced Isabella Nitschke, the European Liaison Officer for Human Rights in China (HRIC), an international Chinese non-governmental organisation, founded in March 1989. HRIC has offices in New York, Hong Kong and Brussels. Ms Nitschke is based in HRIC's Brussels office, which was opened in January 2007.

Ms Nitschke said that she welcomed the opportunity to talk about Human Rigths in China's latest report "State Secrets: China's legal labyrinth". The report, which had taken three years to produce, described and examined the PRC state secrets system and showed how it allowd and even promoted human rights violations by undermining the rights to freedom of expression and information. Ms Nitschke pointed out that every State needs to balance national security and state secrecy concerns with the freedoms and rights of citiyens and the government's development and economic policy goals. However, in China the State Secrets framework presented serious problems of over-classification, subjectivity and arbitrariness, which lead to not only a lack of transparency, but also to a lack of ruele of law in China.

H.H. The Dalai Lama and Human Values

His Holiness the Dalai Lama recently gave an interview to the German newspaper Deutsche Welle. He said: "The human rights situation in Tibet is still very serious. Recently I met a Tibetan who spent eight years in a Chinese prison. His only crime, which took place in a village near Lhasa, was to express his own feelings."

"My main purpose and motivation is not the issue of Tibet, but rather the promotion of human values in order to have happier individuals, families and communities - and in that way, a happier humanity. I consider that to be my contribution. I think every human being has a responsibility to better the world. That's my conviction, and I always try to promote that. My second goal is the promotion of religious harmony. When I teach in India, more and more Chinese come. Sometimes, the Chinese government puts up restrictions to prevent Chinese from coming to India. But despite that, some always come. Many of them say that after seeing the Tibetan community, they found big differences to what they had heard in China. Eventually, there is some positive impact.

Asked about his belief that he could be the last Dalai Lama, His Holiness replied, "As early as 1969, I made clear in an official statement that it was up to the Tibetan people whether or not the institution of the Dalai Lama should continue. That means that if the majority of the Tibetan people decide that the old instiution of the Dalai Lama is no longer relevant to the Tibetan nation, then it will cease to exist. If I were to die soon, I think that most of the Tibetan people would want to keep the institution. If I live on 20 or 30 years, it might be different. That's okay. That would be an end with dignity."

As for a possible return to Tibet, His Hoiness said "Oh yes. All Tibetans get homesick and hope to see their own country. Me too. But at the same time, I'm a Buddhist monk. So mentally and personally one's own birthplace isn't all that important. There's Tibetan saying "Home is where you feel good, and your parents are anyone who does good things for you."

Hans Jürgen Mayer, Deutsche Welle