(TibetanReview.net, Sep14, 2014) – The 8th biannual session of the 15th Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile at Dharamshala, India, opened on Sep 12 with the main agenda of discussing the annual reports of the seven departments of the exile Tibetan administration. The session will continued till Sep 24 and is being webcast live daily on Tibetonline.tv as well as over Dharamshala cable TV.
During his inaugural speech, the Speaker Penpa Tsering touched on a range of issues. In particular, he called on Chinese President Xi Jinping, who is visiting India from Sep 17 to 19, to resolve the issue of Tibet on the basis of the exile administration’s middle way approach and also wanted India to take up the issue with him. Indian newspaper reports have previously cited official Chinese academics as saying Xi was expected to ask New Delhi to close down what they call the Tibetan government-in-Exile.
He also expressed solidarity with Tibetans who had sacrificed their lives for the cause of Tibet. A resolution was passed to also condole their families.
The Speaker also condemned the Chinese government for using the pretext of economic development to carry out cultural assimilation, to encourage Chinese immigration, and for devastating Tibet’s environment through reckless plundering of its mineral and other natural resources.
He also condemned the activists of the followers of the controversial spirit Dolgyal for undermining the Tibetan movement, including with false propaganda.
On the issue of the many Tibetans facing asylum problems in the West, the exile administration’s Tibet.net Sep 12 quoted the speaker as saying, “after a lot of deliberations, we have decided not to discuss certain issues like the problems faced by Tibetan asylum seekers in Europe due to prevailing political sensitivities.”