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US asks China to talk matters over with Tibet

The United States has urged China to engage in a substantive dialogue with Tibetan religious leader Dalai Lama to defuse tension in Tibet.

The Clinton administration's special co-ordinator for Tibetan issue, Julia Taft, in her testimony before the Congressional International Relations Committee on Thursday said: ''There exists a real opportunity to overcome the longstanding differences between the Chinese and the Tibetans."

She added, ''Not only will Tibetans stand to gain from a better relationship -- the rest of China would benefit as well. Stability would be enhanced by satisfying the needs of China's minority people to be secure in their cultural and religious traditions.''

Taft expressed concern about the Chinese efforts to ''re-educate'' monks and nuns in Tibet ''in response to the Chines perception that the monasteries are a focus of 'anti-China' separatist activity.''

''A new campaign to promote atheism and the continued ban on pictures of the Dalai Lama are resented and have resulted in violence that has led to the mistreatment and, in several instances, the deaths of monks and nuns,'' Taft continued, ''Not only do these practices strike at the very heart of Tibet's distinctive cultural and religious heritage, they also violate Beijing's commitment under the international human rights instruments to respect freedom of religion.''

Taft stressed that the US viewed the Tibet Autonomous Region as part of China, and therefore does not conduct diplomatic relations with the representatives of Tibet's government-in-exile.

She, however, said that her country did maintain contact with a wide variety of representatives inside and outside China with views on Tibet, and meets with the Dalai Lama in his capacity as a world religious leader and Nobel Prize recipient.

Staff from the US embassy in Beijing and US Consulate General in Chengdu also visit and report on conditions in Tibet, she added.

UNI

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