Tibetan leaders back Dalai Lama's ''middle path''

Dharamshala, Nov 21 (UNI) The on-going special meeting of Tibetan Government-in-exile has rallied behind the Dalai Lama's middle way as ''a pragmatic and practical'' approach in sorting out the protracted Tibet tangle.

Prof Samdong Rinpoche, Prime minister Tibetan Government-in-exile, told UNI tody that majority of the members were of the opinion that the Tibetans must maintain the consistency by continuing to follow the ''middle way approach'' advocated by the Tibetan temporal head for the last 30 years.

However, Prof Rinpoche stressed that to say that the meeting had failed to find a viable alternative to the middle way approach of the Dala Lama was not correct as the meeting was not being held with that objective in the first place.

''The meeting was organised for reconsidering the things happening in Tibet this year and to discuss more closely the agenda of consensus effort to find a solution for Tibet, '' he stressed.

Regarding the outcome of the conference, being held here since November 17 and scheduled to conclude tomorrow, Prof Rinpoche said, "the final outcome of the meeting would come out tomorrow only, but whatever it is, it would be the peoples' mandate and I have full confidence on the wisdom of the grossroot level people." Regarding the luke warm attitude of the PRC towards the demand of autonomy of Tibet, Prof. Rinpoche said that it was not directly discussed in the meeting as it was not the part of the agenda of the meeting.

''However, it came up as a current issue that the community was facing,'' he said adding that heads of the 15 committees which were formulated for discussing issues related to Tibet, today submitted their view point.

''These would be consolidated to put before the general house to have the final outcome of the meeting,'' Prof Rinpoche said.

He said that the Dalai Lama was expected to grant an audience to the executives on Sunday and the Tibetan temporal head would also meet the press that day.

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