A top U.S. official said Friday the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace laureate, was free to go anywhere as a religious figure--as the Tibetan monk prepares for the week-end visit to the north-east Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, bodering China.
Maria Otero, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Democracy and Global Affairs, told journalists in the Indian capital New Delhi that "the Dalai Lama is a religious leader and he was visiting a monastery, a holy place....And from the U.S. perspective, this is one of the roles that he plays".
The American official was responding to query about her reaction to Chinese protest over the Tibetan leader's visit to Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh from Sunday. China considers the Himalayan state as a part of its territory and has protested visits by top Indian leaders to it.
The Dalai Lama met with Otero, who is also Special Co-ordinator for Tibetan issues, when he visited Washington early last month, one of the few high-ranking U.S officials the Tibetan leader met.
The visit attracted a lot of attention after Obama backed down on meeting the Tibetan monk, reportedly under Chinese pressure--breaking an 18-year tradition of the Dalai Lama meeting with the U.S. president during his trip to Washington.
Otero, who is in India in the run-up to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's first visit to the White House, scheduled for November 24, as U.S. President Barack Obama's first state visitor, said Obama would be visiting China this month, and Tibet would certainly be one of the issues for discussion with the Chinese leaders.
Meanwhile, the Indian government Thursday refused permission to the foreign media to cover the much-hyped visit of the Dalai Lama to Arunachal Pradesh. It was reported the New Delhi had revoked its permission given to four foreign correspondents, including two from the Associated Press (AP), besides canceling fresh permits.
The two AP journalists, who landed Thursday at the Guwahati airport of the north-east Indian state of Assam, were not allowed to proceed to the Himalayan state to cover the Tibetan spiritual leader's visit to the monastery town.
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