Posted on 09/26/2003 6:10:38 AM PDT by knighthawk
The thin young Asian stood on the platform in the square in New Delhi. His body and face were immobile - marble. He did not say a word, but two men, one on each side of him, talked and waved to the crowd of tens of thousands. The crowd knew the two men were top-ranking politicians, one Chinese, the other Indian, who were political wardens for the man between them, a refugee from China.
The Chinese had just conquered Tibet, the young man's native country. But he had escaped across the Himalayan mountains and evaded the Communist soldiers to take refuge in India.
When there was a moment or two of quiet from the two men, the people bowed before the young man and chanted religious Buddhist hymns to him. To all in the crowd, he was the leader of everybody who worshiped Buddha in the Tibetan manner. He was His Holiness, the Dalai Lama XIV, religious and civil leader of Tibet, a title passed down for 14 generations.
Everybody who saw him knew that. In the square, parents - Europeans as well as Asians - held up their children to be blessed by this young man.
That was in 1951, shortly after Tibet had fallen to Communist China despite fierce fighting. I stood before the platform, reporter's notebook in hand. Rows of soldiers stood around that platform to make sure the young man did not escape.
He was a prisoner, but he smiled for an instant or two and wiggled his fingers at a little boy who had wiggled at him.
India gave him permission, over China's wrath, to travel in the world if he did not make political or anti-Chinese speeches and did not attempt to return to Tibet. Other than India, no country has given him any help.
As years passed, the President of the United States sometimes greeted him when he visited here, and that was considered a political step forward. But nothing else went with it.
I saw him a few days ago here in New York. Whenever he visits a city and I am nearby, I usually ask to see him. If I get a little news from him, that's fine, but it's not the real reason for my visit. Every time I talk with him, I take pleasure from a man of good soul, kindness, bravery and good humor. But I also learn, without his talking about it, what pain and sadness a power like Communist China can impose on such a man, decade after decade, by imposing isolation upon him and his nation.
I think that the pain of isolation from his people is sharpest when the Dalai Lama is in New York. That is because Tibet has been barred from the United Nations, the very organization that is supposed to give a voice and worldwide audience to countries under attack by huge nations. None of Tibet's diplomats are permitted even to enter the doors of the UN, in New York or anywhere else.
When the UN was in its first years, open revolutionaries were allowed to enter, walk its corridors and confer with diplomats, including those whose countries they were fighting. I would talk, for instance, with Indonesian rebels in the presence of colonial Dutch officials who were trying to defeat them.
But after more than half a century of existence, the UN closes its doors not only to the Tibetans, but also to other countries that China claims as its possession, such as Taiwan.
This happens despite a classic case of political finagling that has given Russia, in effect, 15 votes. That's because the UN decided that the former states of the Soviet Union are now independent and each deserves a seat. The U.S. has one.
The vicious, undemocratic way the UN has treated Tibet has forced the Dalai Lama to abandon Tibet's most important goal - independence.
He now says Tibet would give up total independence if China would agree to a "third way" - an end to the waves of Chinese who cross the border and squeeze out Tibet's businesses, freedom of religion, culture and linguistic identity. Tibetan schools would again be able to teach the Tibetan language.
It is a tragedy that I know nobody at the UN or anywhere else who believes there is the slightest chance of Beijing's bestowing those benefits, which are not favors but rights written into the UN charter - for whatever that means now.
No more UN for US-list
If people want on or off this list, please let me know.
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