The Tibet Post

Dharamshala:  A delegation of six parliamentary members representing the Australian All-Party Parliamentary Group for Tibet presently on a visit to Dharamshala, met the Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama yesterday. During today's press conference, the delegation expressed its intention to learn more about the challenges facing the Tibetan people today.

The delegation said "We support, strongly, His Holiness the Dalai Lama's Middle-Way proposal for a peacefully negotiated settlement of the Tibetan  situation and regret that the Tibet-China dialogue has so far failed to bring genuine progress towards a mutually acceptable resolution."

"We express our disappointment at the Chinese Government's outright rejection last November of the “Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People” - a detailed proposal for meeting the needs of the Tibetan people within existing provisions in the Constitution of the People's Republic of China" said the delegation.

The six Australian MPs including two women spoke to Tibetan and Indian reporters after their meetings with His Holiness, Tibetan prime minister, Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, the speaker of Tibetan Parliament in exile, Mr. Penpa Tsering and other ministers. Delegation said, they were very encouraged by seeing Tibetans living in exile positively preserving their extraordinary cultural and religious identity when they were visiting to Tibetan institutions.

Labor Party member, Mr. Michael Danby who led the Australian delegation told The Tibet Post that they discussed with His Holiness the Dalai Lama on various issues of Tibet including the statue of China-Tibet talks, the successor of  H.H the Dalai Lama and the real and fake Panchen Lama during their meeting.  "We talked about the statue of negotiations with Chinese government, what foreign friends of Tibet could do, not just political way, but, in the ways that, very anxious, beautiful Tibetan archives from the 20th century," he said.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama told MPs various ways of his successor regarding a great changing of time. "We were very impressed by the very detailed alternatives His Holiness gave us about series topics of his succession, explained to us what is the widely understood by the most Tibetan people, that the Chinese government seizure of Panchen Lama does not prevent the high Lamas choosing His Holiness the Dalai Lama of the future." "We wished him to live to 120, but  even if he doesn't, he was anxious to communicate was the detail of what was happening in the past, while the His Holiness the Dalai Lama is being chosen, suggestions he has made and explained to us very interesting things about the seized Panchen Lama, the real Panchen lama who was previously a myth of indicating who might be the future Dalai lama. His Holiness also told us about official Panchen Lama that Chinese put-up." Danby added.

"We look forward to welcoming His Holiness back to Australia in December of this year, a visit that will coincide with the twentieth anniversary of his Nobel Peace Prize. The visit, which has been given the theme “Our Future: Who is Responsible?”, comes at a time when Australia and the world at large are facing same their greatest challenges and opportunities. We look forward to hearing more His Holiness's thoughts on universal responsibility, peace, justice and the global environment."

The Chinese officials from canberra criticized the visit as an act of interference in China's internal affairs.  A spokesmen from the embassy said "The visit by a group of Australian MPs to Dharamsala and their meeting with Dalai Lama constitute public support to Tibetan independence“