Dalai Lama in US on maiden foreign trip after Tibet crackdown
Posted: 11 April 2008 0808 hrs

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WASHINGTON: Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama arrived in the United States Thursday on his first foreign trip since China's crackdown on protests in the Himalayan territory that drew a global outcry.

The exiled 72-year-old saffron-clad leader flew into Seattle, the western coastal city in Washington state, for a five-day lecture series on spirituality but groups close to him did not rule out meetings with US politicians and discussions on the turmoil in Tibet.

The US House of Representatives and Senate on Wednesday passed separate resolutions condemning Beijing's crackdown in Tibet and calling on the Chinese government to begin a dialogue directly with the Dalai Lama.

The spiritual leader's 13-day US trip, which also includes visits to Michigan and New York, was "long planned, before the current crisis," said Mary Beth Markey, vice-president of the International Campaign for Tibet, a Washington-based group close to the Dalai Lama.

"But I can imagine that the issue of the current situation in Tibet, that would come up wherever he goes because that is such a compelling situation," she told AFP.

"It's also a possibility that he would meet with political figures because, for example, members of Congress from a particular area traditionally have the occasion of having the Dalai Lama in their home district, to have a private meeting," she said.

The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, is scheduled to speak at the five-day "Seeds of Compassion" conference beginning Friday in Seattle where a large crowd is expected to attend.

He is to leave Seattle Tuesday for conferences at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor from April 19-20 and at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York on April 22.

"This is very much about his Holiness responding to invitations from people eager to hear his messages of compassion and universal responsibility -- the kind of topics he would be talking on throughout his visit," Markey said.

On a stopover at the Tokyo Narita airport earlier Thursday, the Dalai Lama renewed support for the Beijing Olympics and appealed to China not to brand him as a demon.

He told reporters he had personally urged the Tibetan community to respect the Olympic torch relay, although he also defended people's right to protest in his homeland.

Tibet last month saw the biggest protests in years against China's controversial rule, on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising that sent the Dalai Lama fleeing into exile in India.

Beijing has accused him of instigating the deadly violence and of seeking to split the predominantly Buddhist territory from China.

The Dalai Lama has repeatedly said he was only pursuing "meaningful" Tibetan autonomy and cultural freedoms within China -- and that he supports the right of Beijing to host the Olympics in August.

China's clampdown has triggered international outrage, with major protests during the Beijing Olympic torch relay in London, Paris and San Francisco.

The San Francisco stop on Wednesday was less chaotic after authorities ordered hundreds of police onto the streets and changed the route to throw off protesters.

- AFP/ir