Reportage – 2005

China must accept the Tibetan call: French parliamentarians

DHARAMSHALA, India, 22 March 2005

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“China must respect human rights and feelings of the Tibetans,” says Lionnel Luca (Mr), President of Tibet group at National Assembly.

"We will support for a dialogue between the Chinese government and the Tibetan government-in-exile. We will lobby the French government to contribute for the dialogue between the two sides," Luca added.

He also said that there is no future for China without democracy.

In a bid to show their solidarity with the Tibetan cause, a 12-member delegation of the French Deputies of the National Assembly, the Lower Chamber of the French Parliament, is on a visit to Dharamsala, the seat of the Tibetan government-in-exile.

The Deputies, representing the major political parties in France—UMP, PS and UDF—will call upon the Dalai Lama on Thursday.

It is the first time that a French parliamentary delegation to visit Dharamsala. The delegates are in town from 21 to 25 March at the invitation of the Chairman of Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies (Tibetan Parliament-in-exile).

The Tibet group in the National Assembly was established in 1991 and in the Senate, the Upper Chamber, in 2000. Currently there are 90 members in the former and 34 in the latter as members of the Tibet group.

France is observing the Year of Tibet at the initiative of the Tibet Group in the National Assembly the visits to Dharamsala is part of its activity.

The Dalai Lama fled to India after China occupied Tibet in 1959. He established the Tibetan government-in-exile in the northern Indian hill town of Dharamsala. The exile Tibetans are no more seeking an independent Tibet but are willing to remain with a self-rule within China.