FREE TIBET!!!!...and then what?

I'd like to second what Dasha just said by asking: How many supporters of a free Tibet have read the constitution the Dalai Lama wishes to enact when he takes power? (Here's a link.)

Why are you quoting the 1963 - and not e.g. the one from 1991 (the Charter of the Tibetans In-Exile) - as the one which the Dalai Lama wishes to enact?

Well, "yours" was created four years after the Dalai Lama had left Tibet and in exile (India) as well ... :wink:

China's central government department will meet with Dalai's private representative in the coming days, Xinhua learned from official sources on Friday.

"In view of the requests repeatedly made by the Dalai side for resuming talks, the relevant department of the central government will have contact and consultation with Dalai's private representative in the coming days," an official said.

"The policy of the central government towards Dalai has been consistent and the door of dialogue has remained open," he said.

"It is hoped that through contact and consultation, the Dalai side will take credible moves to stop activities aimed at splitting China, stop plotting and inciting violence and stop disrupting and sabotaging the Beijing Olympic Games so as to create conditions for talks."

(Xinhua News Agency April 25, 2008)

Many observers feel that China used the talks simply to give the impression of being willing to engage in dialogue, in order to pacify critics and buy time. Observers are also skeptical about how serious the new offer is. They point out that the Xinhua news agency spoke only of "contact and consultations," rather than talks or negotiations, and suggest the offer is just another attempt to limit the damage to China's reputation on the international stage.

China received positive responses Friday after announcing that the central government will meet with the Dalai Lama's private representative in the coming days.

A SENIOR Tibetan lama and Chinese government advisers have defended contentious rules banning reincarnations of "living Buddhas" without approval.

The rules are apparently aimed at empowering China to name the next Dalai Lama when the 14th and current Dalai Lama dies.

The rules, which came into force on September 1, bar any Buddhist monk living outside China from seeking reincarnation for himself or recognising a "living Buddha".

Reincarnations of about 1000 living Buddhas have been approved in Tibet and Tibetan populated areas of Sichuan, Qinghai, Gansu and Yunnan since 1991, according to a government website.

In 1995, the Dalai Lama and China's Communist authorities chose rival reincarnations of the 10th Panchen Lama, who died in 1989. The Panchen Lama is the second-highest figure in Tibet's spiritual hierarchy.

The boy anointed by the Dalai Lama, then aged six, swiftly disappeared from public view, prompting international rights groups to call him the "world's youngest political prisoner".