Envoy Urges China to Move Forward on Tibet Issue
On the eve of his trip to China later this month, President Bush met with the Dalai Lama during the Tibetan spiritual leader’s recent 10-day visit to Washington to discuss Tibet’s future status and its relations with China. Accompanying the Dalai Lama every step of the way was Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, the Dalai Lama’s personal envoy and trusted political advisor for the past 25 years.
Gyari spoke with the Diplomatic Pouch about the Dalai Lama’s visit and his own experience as Tibet’s chief negotiator in the on-again-off-again talks with Beijing.
“The moment they met, his holiness said this is a reunion of old friends, and there is a very warm, personal rapport between the two,” Gyari said of the exchange between the president and the Dalai Lama, who also took part in high-profile meetings with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and various congressional leaders.
 Gyari said he hopes Bush will take the Dalai Lama’s message of finding a peaceful solution to the Tibet issue with him during his upcoming trip to China and that Bush “will look in the eye of the Chinese president and very plaintively tell him that the Chinese leader must reach out to his holiness because his holiness is very sincere” in wanting to engage in serious negotiations with the Chinese government.
For many years, Gyari—who, like the Dalai Lama, is recognized as a reincarnatelama—has been the point
man on those negotiations. Since1982, he has gone back and forth with his Chinese counterparts, making slow but steady progress. This latest round of talks, begun in 2002, is shaping up to be the most constructive dialogue thus far, according to Gyari, who noted that in the beginning, the “discussions” merely consisted of long, one-sided diatribes directed at him by Chinese officials.
Although the discussions have gradually improved, they have yet to yield any tangible results on the ground, which has taken a personal toll on Gyari. “First of all, as a Tibetan it always is rather painful to do what I do.” Gyari said. “One must understand they are still part of an authoritarian one-party system, which certainly does put limitations on them, so on a personal level I must say that it has been quite challenging, but it has also been rewarding. But at the same time it has been very disappointing for the lack of any progress. I know this is not something that can be concluded overnight, but not really making any substantial change of course is also very, very taxing.”
Even more frustrating has been the continued reluctance by the Chinese government to accept that the Dalai Lama is not seeking full independence for Tibet. Rather, he has asked for autonomous rule, similar to the system enjoyed by Hong Kong. The move, however, has sparked anger among many Tibetans who say that anything less than full independence is a betrayal. Though he sympathizes with the Tibetan people’s position, Gyari says the Dalai Lama’s compromise is the most realistic approach, and one that will ultimately help Tibet retain its disappearing traditional identity.
“We are not talking about independence, but we are certainly seeking an opportunity for the Tibetan people to have the capability and the right and the facilities to self-govern in areas such as culture, religion and all other methods that are internal,” he explained. “We have made it very clear that when it comes to issues such as defense and foreign policy … those could be the prerogative of the central Chinese government.”
And with the Dalai Lama now in his 70s, the time to take advantage of this offer is now, but so far Gyari says the Chinese have been “dilly dallying” on the issue. He warned that if yet another set of talks collapse, a golden opportunity could be lost forever. “Many Tibetans love [the Dalai Lama], many people respect him, and he is the one person who will be morally strong enough to not only deal with China but to be able to sustain that deal by the sheer power of his moral authority,” Gyari said. “Unfortunately there will not be any Tibetan leader who will have that kind of historical and moral authority to be able to make such concessions.”
And the benefits for a country trying to be the next global superpower would be tremendous. “If they really look very carefully, the Tibet issue is a win-win situation,” Gyari said, noting that in addition to boosting China’s national unity and stability, granting autonomy to Tibet would also skyrocket China’s international legitimacy, literally “overnight.”
“The whole world knows that Tibet is not China and that Tibetans are not Chinese,” Gyari said. “I think that sheer number of people or sheer economic or military standing alone cannot make a nation a superpower or for that matter accepted by the rest of the world as a leader of the world community…. They don’t have that moral acceptability to call themselves a truly great nation even though they can continue to militarily or politically suppress Tibet. It will continue to remain a big black spot on China’s face.”
White House photo by Eric Draper
The Dalai Lama meets with President George W. Bush at the White House.
Rotary Club Attracts Diplomats to Its Good Deeds
Mention the Rotary Club and many people might conjure up vague images of businessmen getting together in smoke-filled rooms, occasionally donating a few bucks to charity here and there.
Doris Margolis certainly had her own misconceptions when her husband approached her to join the organization years ago. “Before he joined I thought Rotary was a bunch of guys, a bunch of middle-aged white guys, who got together once a week to have lunch and chew the fat,” Margolis said. “I was amazed to find out how wrong I was.”
Margolis now heads the Embassy Relations Committee of the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C., one of 33,000 Rotary Clubs spanning 165 countries across the globe. Founded in 1905 as the world’s first service club, Rotary now boasts a membership of 1.2 million people who donate both their time and millions of dollars to a multitude of charitable projects, locally and around the world.
 The Rotarian motto of “service above self” has drawn not only professional leaders from all walks of business and government, both men and women, it has also attracted a large number of ambassadors and diplomats to join their ranks.
At a recent Rotary meeting at the Hotel Washington, this strong international presencewas evident as more than a dozen diplomats and ambassadors gathered to hear U.S. Ambassador Randall L. Tobias, the current U.S. global AIDS coordinator, talk about the HIV pandemic in developing nations.
Ambassadors from Grenada, Iceland, Fiji, New Zealand, Lesotho, Suriname, St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua and Barbuda, as well as embassy representatives from countries such as Nigeria, Vietnam and Korea were just some of the international faces in the crowd. In fact, the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C., has about 60 honorary ambassador members, including New Zealand Ambassador John Wood, a full-time Rotary member who is leaving Washington shortly and will be honored by the Rotary Club at a farewell dinner on Nov. 30.
Margolis attributed the diplomatic community’s strong ties with the Rotary Club to its welcoming, informal nature. “Rotary offers a neutral venue for these representatives of diverse political groups to get together in a non-threatening, apolitical atmosphere,” she said, noting that unlike other official functions, Rotary gatherings allow diplomats to “let their hair down and get to know real Americans or citizens of whatever country they’re in … on a relaxed, person-to-person basis.”
The Rotary’s impressive global service record is also a major draw for community-minded professionals of all stripes. Many people might not be aware of Rotary’s integral role in the fight to eradicate polio around the world, having donated some $600 million to the cause—the most of any nongovernmental organization.
In addition, Rotary sponsors myriad local projects ranging from homeless shelters to job-training programs, with members going far beyond merely writing checks to personally going out to get to know their community. Margolis’s husband, a retired federal judge, is particularly proud of a venture he began three years ago to donate dictionaries to all third-graders in the D.C. public school system. He brought along the executive vice president of Pepco with him during one of his trips and the executive was so impressed with the program, Pepco wound up underfunding it for the next two years.
photo by Albert Mogzec
More than a dozen ambassadors and embassy representatives took part in a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Washington, D.C., in the Hotel Washington.
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New Life Springs From Afghanistan’s Landmines
Just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday, Afghan Ambassador Said Tayeb Jawad honored Roots of Peace for the group’s work in creating “a harvest of hope” by transforming minefields into farmland in a packed reception that included U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes.
 “Roots of Peace is doing a wonderful job because on one hand they are removing the mines, which is really a deadly reminder of the war in Afghanistan,” Jawad told the Diplomatic Pouch. “But on the other hand they are reviving the Afghan agricultural sector, which is very important. Afghanistan has been an agricultural country—it’s about 80 percent of our exports,” he added, noting that rebuilding the agricultural sector will also help to combat the narcotics trade.
Afghanistan is still littered with millions of landmines following the Soviet invasion—one in fact for every Afghan family. Heidi Kühn, founder and chief executive officer of Roots of Peace, was celebrated for her work in helping to remove not only thousands of landmines in Afghanistan, replacing them with foods such as grapes and nuts, but also for the group’s efforts in other countries such as Iraq, Cambodia, Croatia and Angola, where Roots of Peace is also working to turn “mines into vines.”
Hughes, who’s relatively new to the diplomatic arena, recalled the story of a girl she met during a trip to Afghanistan who asked her not to forget about Afghanistan once she left the country. Hughes called Kühn a “role model” for not forgetting about people in need, crediting groups such as Roots of Peace with helping her “put up with the slings and arrows” of life in the public eye.
photo by Lili Iravani
From left, U.S. Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Karen Hughes, Ambassador of Afghanistan Said Tayeb Jawad and his wife Shamim Jawad attend a reception honoring Roots of Peace, a humanitarian organization, at the Afghan Embassy.
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