i Dalai Lama appeals for peace at Hiroshima Summit | Bureau of His Holiness the Dalai Lama

Dalai Lama appeals for peace at Hiroshima Summit

(Tibet.net): On Nov. 12, His Holiness attended the first day of the 3-day 11th World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates Hiroshima. His Holiness said that Hiroshima and Nagasaki atom bomb experience is reminder to all of us about the destructive nature of war and nuclear weapons. 

On a visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial along with his five fellow Nobel laureates, F.W. de Klerk, Mairead Corrigan Maguire, Mohamed ElBaradei, Jody Williams and Dr Shirin Ebadi, His Holiness the Dalai Lama   talked about how the “spirit and message of Hiroshima and Nagasaki” had moved him ever since his first visit, more than forty years before, and expressed the hope that that spirit “reached every part of the world.

“The past is past; we must look forward,” he continued, in sharing his admiration for the forgiveness embodied in both cities, and in the Japanese and German people he had spoken to who had no bad feelings towards the nations that had bombed them. “Using force is outdated,” His Holiness said. “Some nearly seven billion people should know that.

Ms. Williams read out the charter that His Holiness and other of the laureates had signed, calling for the elimination of all nuclear weapons.

On Nov. 14, in an interview with Time Magazine and Kategaho, a Japanese magazine His Holiness said that the Tibetan stand has been very clear since early 1970s, “in fact, during Mao’s time, when I returned back from Beijing, I was full of enthusiasm and hope. I even said I want to join the communist party. The 17-point agreement was also based on ‘one country, two system’. But Chinese government never kept their promise. By 1959, things became very difficult and we were forced to escape Tibet.

“So we are not seeking political separation, but we need meaningful autonomy to practice our culture and religion,” His Holiness said.

His Holiness said his faith and hope in Chinese public has increased and support from Chinese intellectuals is tremendous.

On Hu Jintao’s ‘harmonious society’ concept, he said harmony depends on trust and respect and that it cannot be forced through use of fear and violence. “Hu’s goal is good, method is wrong.” said His Holiness.

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