ASYLUM SOUGHT FOR TIBETAN LEADER KARMAPA

ASYLUM SOUGHT FOR TIBETAN LEADER

"ASYLUM TO KARMAPA WILL MAR RELATIONS" With this headline "The New Indian Express" front page-all edition news describes the unhappiness by Chinese government over granting of asylum to 14 year old Tibetan spiritual leader Karmapa Rimpoche. Beneath that news in a box item "Asylum for Karmapa" was the UNI story from Pondicherry. It is given as follows:

The Dravida Peravai, a political party here, today urged the Center to grant asylum to Karmapa. Dravida Peravai General Secretary N.Nandhivarman made this demand in a representation to External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh.[UNI] The full text of the memorandum is given here.

Today's new stories reveal the escape of 14 year old Karmapa and his 24 year old sister with the help of 4 others negotiating 16000 feet snowbound mountain passes and trekking 900 miles from Tibet to India. We demand that Indian government must grant political asylum to the 14 year old Karmapa Lama Ugyen Trinley Dorje and his team.

Chinese staked their claim to Tibet on the marriage of a Tibetan King Sonsten Gampo to a Chinese Princess in the 17 th century. This claim lacked logic because the Tibetan King's senior bride Princess Brikuti Devi of Nepal deserves first preference over Chinese Princess and thus the Chinese claim is unsustainable. Having failed to clinch their claim Chinese retreated to 13 th century evidences basing on the establishment of Mongol influence over Tibet. However Mongols are a different nation and Chinese have always considered them as aliens. In 1911 when the Nationalist Revolution toppled the Chi'ng dynasty, Sun Yatsen said that the " China had been twice occupied by foreign powers, the first by Yuans ( Mongol emperors) and second by Chi'ngs ( Manchu emperors). In any case, the Mongol influence in Tibet came to an end in 1350, eighteen years before China overthrew them. It becomes evident that China is building a castle of lies to invade Tibet.

In 1949 when Nepal applied for U.N. Membership it cited its diplomatic relations with Tibet to prove that it was a sovereign state. The U.N. accepted this argument and thus effectively recognized Tibet's status as a sovereign state. During the UN general assembly debate on Tibet Irish representative Frank Aitken stated " For 1000 years or for a couple of 1000 years , at any rate Tibet was as free and fully in control of its own affairs as ant nation in this assembly and a thousand times more free to look after its own affairs than many of the nations here [ UN General assembly docs A/PV 898/1960;a/PV 1394, 1401, 1965 ].................

The lengthy letter ends with the appeal to Government of India " Let us provide asylum to Karmapa Lama Ugyen Trinley Dorje and Gandhian land must not fail in its historical duty....