Tibetans likely to back "Middle Way", hope for best

Dharamsala, Nov 21 : The ongoing conclave of Tibetan exiles in Dharamsala has reportedly failed to find a viable alternative to the Dalai Lama's "Middle Way" approach to China.

The participants today admitted that they could do little more than hope for a softening in Beijing's stance.

Samdong Rinpoche, Tibetan Prime Minister in-exile said, any decision taken in the meeting will be made public in due time.

"Now that group discussions are over, whatever the group has discussed, that should be made public. So number one is plenary session, easy for the media. Whatever they had to discuss they have discussed ," he added.

The conclave had been called by the Dalai Lama to look for a way forward after eight rounds of official talks on autonomy with Beijing failed to make any progress.

The spiritual leader kept himself away from it so as not to "hamper the free expression of opinions of the participants".

The 600 delegates split into 15 groups of 40 each to brainstorm ideas, and came together to discuss their conclusions before presenting their ideas to the government-in-exile on Saturday.

A Tibetan parliamentarian in exile said, there were strong recommendations in different groups during the discussion.

"This meeting is not convened to change the policy as such but definitely, there are strong recommendations in different groups asking for dialogue process when we for the next round of talks we should put more conditions as such, releasing all the political prisoners. So this time, we will put more conditions to china when we go for the dialogue otherwise, the policy change as such it will not come at all," said Karma Yeshi, Member,ibetan Parliament-in-exile.

The Tibetans feel that the Middle Way, which abandoned the dream of an independent Tibet in favour of seeking greater autonomy within China through dialogue has failed.

Beijing has firmly rejected that idea in talks this month with the Dalai Lama's envoys over the future of Tibet.

ANI