China improving: Dalai Lama Says environment more important than oil sands wealth

By Jamie Komarnicki, Canwest News ServiceOctober 2, 2009
As the Dalai Lama expressed optimism over China's progress in recent years, a group of protesters in Calgary said a more forceful message is needed to prompt change in the Communist country.
Speaking Thursday in Calgary, the Tibetan spiritual leader said he had "nothing much to say" about the 60th anniversary of Communist China. The Dalai Lama noted the country has left behind its socialist past in favour of capitalism. He also told reporters that meetings with influential Chinese have left him optimistic about progress in China's attitude toward him and Tibet.
"Judging from a wider perspective, things are moving," he said.
But a group of about 30 Uighur protesters outside the Chinese Consulate said the Dalai Lama's message of peace and compassion is ineffective in China.
"We are here today because China's government today is celebrating 60 years of communism," said Abduluhat Nur, of the Alberta Uighur Culture Society.
"But eastern Turkistan is crying because they are under oppression."
The Uighurs, a Muslim Turkic ethnic group in China's Xinjiang region, staged anti-Chinese riots last year that resulted in violent unrest. Similar violence erupted in Tibet in March.
At Thursday's protests, members of the local Uighur community said they aren't advocating violence, but said messages of peace and harmony do little to motivate China to change.
"We would like to see more strongly the demand against China," said Gheyret Aush.
"Compassion, it works for the democratic countries. It doesn't work for the communist countries."
The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in 1959 after Chinese troops invaded Tibet, said he believes he will one day return to his homeland.
In the city for a University of Calgary conference, the Tibetan spiritual leader broached a wide range of topics in a question-and-answer session with reporters.
He called military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq "a failure."
The billions of dollars spent on war would be better used in health care and education, the Dalai Lama said.
Asked about the development of Alberta's oilsands, he said given a choice between "destruction of environment or losing money, then we have to choose losing money."
He said leaders must find a middle ground, "using nature's resources with maximum care of environmental protection."
(CALGARY HERALD)