Dalai Lama set to become honorary citizen of Paris

Paris, Apr.16 : The mayor of Paris, Bertrand Delanou, on Wednesday said that he would ask the city council to make the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen of the city.

The decision will "pay tribute to a champion of peace, a tireless advocate of dialogue between people," Delanoe said.

"Paris also wants to show its support for the people of Tibet who are defending their most basic right to dignity, freedom and simply life," said the mayor in a statement.

The city council will on Monday take up the proposal on the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader who lives in exile in India where he fled after a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule of his Himalayan land.

The Dalai Lama is to visit France in August when China hosts the Olympic Games that have drawn much controversy from human rights advocates concerned by a recent crackdown in Tibet.

ANI