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President George Bush 'raised his concerns about the situation in Tibet and encouraged the Chinese government to engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama's representatives'. -- PHOTO: AP
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WASHINGTON - AFTER weeks of silence, US President George W. Bush intervened in the Tibet crisis on Wednesday, calling Chinese leader Hu Jintao to express concern over the bloody unrest.
President Bush also asked Mr Hu to allow full access to diplomats and journalists in Tibet and called for talks between Beijing and representatives of the Himalayan territory's exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, the White House said.
President Bush's telephone call to Mr Hu came more than two weeks after the biggest protests against Chinese rule in Tibet in nearly 20 years that has left, according to Tibet's government-in-exile, some 140 people dead.
The US leader has left it to his staff to call for Chinese restraint and reiterate his plans to attend the Beijing Olympics in August amid mounting anger at the Chinese crackdown on the Tibetan protests.
In his talks with Mr Hu Wednesday, President Bush 'raised his concerns about the situation in Tibet and encouraged the Chinese government to engage in substantive dialogue with the Dalai Lama's representatives and to allow access for journalists and diplomats,' the White House said in a statement.
Briefing reporters on the call, President Bush's national security advisor Stephen Hadley said the president 'pushed very hard' on the need for restraint in the violence in Tibet as well as the need for consultation with representatives of the Dalai Lama.
Talks between the Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama's envoys were suspended since the summer of last year.
'The president urged that those be restored as part of a process for the Chinese authorities to reaching out to and addressing the grievances of the people in Tibet,' Mr Hadley said.
Beijing was prepared to continue contacts and consultations with the Dalai Lama, but Mr Hu said - according to Mr Hadley - that the Tibetan spiritual leader had to stop pushing for Tibetan independence and halt crime and violence in the territory.
The Dalai Lama has rejected the claims, saying he only wanted 'meaningful autonomy.' 'So, again, the question is whether this will turn out to be an opening for a consultation process between Chinese authorities and representatives of the Dalai Lama. So we'll have to see,' Mr Hadley said.
President Bush has made numerous calls to Chinese leaders to talk to the Dalai Lama to resolve the longstanding Tibetan issue but they have not budged.
Brown calls Wen
British Prime Minister Gordon Brown had telephoned his Chinese counterpart Wen Jiabao a week ago and pressed the premier to end the bloody violence.
French leader Nicolas Sarkozy this week floated the possibility of boycotting the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony if China refused to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama on Tibet.
Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Wednesday that he would not attend the Games in Beijing.
But the White House has said President Bush would be at the event, drawing a distinction between sports and politics.
China has accused the Dalai Lama, who President Bush and the US Congress honoured in October, of masterminding the latest protests - a charge the Tibetan spiritual leader, who fled his homeland after the 1959 uprising, vehemently denies. -- AFP
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