McCain Meets Dalai Lama, Calls On China To Release Prisoners
Published: Friday, 25 July, 2008
Aspen, CO, USA, 25 July 2008 (By John Colson, The Aspen Times) - U.S. Sen. John McCain paused in his ongoing run for the
presidency on Friday to trade a few pleasantries in Aspen with His
Holiness the Dalai Lama, and to urge China to release Tibetan political
prisoners and improve its record in human rights.
The
Dalai Lama, in turn, praised McCain’s “genuine concern about the
democracy and human right and religious freedom and environment issue
in China in general and in particular in Tibet’s case.”
The two
landed separately at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport, the Dalai Lama
about an hour prior to McCain, and then met privately at a home on Lake
Avenue in the West End neighborhood for approximately an hour. They
then made a few statements to reporters.
A small contingent of
protesters appeared at the airport, waving signs about ending the war
in Iraq and other national issues as the McCain motorcade of about a
half a dozen vehicles drove away from a private tarmac and onto Highway
82.
After meeting with the Dalai Lama, McCain’s motorcade
returned to the airport to fly the candidate out and get him to a 5:30
p.m. speech to Hispanic military veterans in Denver.
The Dalai Lama, meanwhile, participated in a panel discussion at the Aspen Institute’s Greenwald Pavillion.
McCain said the Dalai Lama “represents the
profound desire of millions of Tibetan people for basic dignity and
human rights. His nonviolence approach, his lifelong work of seeking
common ground across cultural and religious divides are an inspiration
to all mankind.”
McCain said he has been disappointed by China’s
public accusations that the Dalai Lama was behind recent protests in
Tibet against Chinese rule (China invaded Tibet in the 1950s, driving
the Dalai Lama into exile in India, and have ruled the small nation
ever since.)
“Such rhetoric doesn’t serve the cause of peaceful
change and reconciliation,” McCain said. “I urge the Chinese leaders
engage in talks ... with His Holiness’ representatives in addressing
the just grievances of the Tibetan people, and I urge the Chinese
government to release Tibetan political prisoners, account for Tibetans
who have disappeared since the protest in March, and engage in
meaningful dialogue in genuine autonomy for Tibet.”
While the
U.S. welcomes good relations with China, McCain said, “it does no
service to the Chinese government, and certainly no service to the
people of China, for the United States and other democracies to pretend
that the suppression of rights in China does not concern us. It does,
will and must concern us.”
The Dalai Lama, speaking after
McCain, said his “basic commitment is promotion of human value. That
means human compassion, human affection. It is, I believe, the
biological factor. We need that. This body come from mother, and
mother’s affection, mother’s compassion is, I think, the most important
experience in our life.”
His other missions are to promote
“secular ethics” and to encourage “religious harmony,” he said, as well
as to proclaim to the world about the repression of the Tibetan people
and culture.
But, he said, “this time, my visit is not political.”
