China should grant 'genuine' autonomy to Tibet: Sangay

Washington: China should grant "genuine" autonomy to Tibet within the framework of the Chinese Constitution and the Dalai Lama is not an "obstacle" to resolving the vexed issue, according to the leader of the Tibetan government in exile.

"If the Chinese government implement their own laws listed in the Constitution and minorities nationalities act, we could take that as genuine autonomy," the president of the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) Lobsang Sangay said.

Reiterating that the "middle way" approach of the spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in addressing the Tibet issue, he said Tibetans should be granted "genuine" autonomy within China and within the framework of the Chinese Constitution.

"We do believe that the Tibetan cause would prevail," Sangay said yesterday at a public event organised by The Heritage Foundation, a prominent American think tank.

He also said that United States supports the middle way approach of the Tibetan people.

"His Holiness the Dalai Lama is not an obstacle to the solution of Tibet. He is the solution," he said.

Beijing views the 14th Dalai Lama as a "separatist" working to split Tibet from China. During the 1959 Tibetan uprising, the Dalai Lama fled to India.

Earlier this month, China's ruling Communist party for the first time publicly said some of its officials were funding the Dalai Lama by donating money to the 81-year-old exiled spiritual leader, undermining Beijing's fight against "separatist" forces.

China has been carrying out a systematic crackdown in Tibet and associated prefectures with Tibetan population to eliminate the influence of the Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

In recent years, over 120 Tibetans, mostly monks, have committed self-immolations in different parts, calling for the return of the spiritual leader.