Obama Won’t Meet With Dalai Lama

Helle Dale / October 07, 2009

It was a sad week for American support for oppressed nations. The White House announced that it will not be meeting for now with the Dalai Lama, one of the world’s pre-eminent defenders of human rights and most recognized religious leaders, during his visit to Washington. President Obama will wait until he has had a chance to travel to China in November, one of the world’s five remaining communist dictatorships. It is a strange and troubling reversal for “the leader of the free world.”

The cause of Tibet has in the past united political leaders across the political spectrum in Washington and as far away as Hollywood. Remember Sen. Jesse Helms and actor/activist Richard Gere in 1997 sharing a stage in support of Tibet in 1997? Since 1991, the Dalai Lama has met with three U.S. presidents, both Republicans and Democrats. That kind of support from the most powerful country in the world is incalculable for activists trying to keep the cause of human rights and liberty in Tibet alive. The country has slowly but surely experienced cultural and demographic cleansing since the takeover by China in 1950, as Chinese populations have replaced the native Tibetans. The fact that the Tibetan religious leader will meet with the new U.S. coordinator for Tibet, Maria Otero, does not make up for the loss of the prestige that a White House meeting confers. (more…)