Dalai lama meets foreign minister, but not prime minister

The dalai lama, on the last day of his three day visit to the Netherlands, met with foreign minister Maxime Verhagen, but was snubbed by prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

At a meeting with members of Dutch parliament on Friday, the Tibetan spiritual leader said he was not offended by Balkenende's decision not to meet him. Martijn van Dam, a lawmaker for the Labour party (PvdA) reminded him that previous prime ministers Ruud Lubbers and Wim Kok had invited him when he visited the Netherlands. The dalai lama responded by saying that he is visiting in his capacity as a spiritual leader and does not want to mingle in political affairs.

Balkenende had said he would not meet the dalai lama because it would bring an "unwarranted risk" to "the good relations with China". The Chinese had put diplomatic pressure on the Netherlands not to facilitate the Tibetan leader who has been living in exile for the past 50 years.

Chinese ambassador Zhang Jun wrote a warning letter to politicians: "It is against my wish to see that our good relationship would be hijacked by dalai and the image of the Dutch parliament tarnished by his visit." In an interview with NRC Handelsblad Zhang Jun said: "We know from visits by the dalai lama to other countries that there can be negative consequences."

However, the dalai lama did meet with members of parliament, and he saw foreign minister Maxime Verhagen at a meeting of Dutch religious leaders in The Hague. In order not to offend the Chinese, the occasion was labelled a 'meeting with', not a 'reception by' the foreign minister.

After his visit to parliament, Tibet's religious leader told reporters he has observed "some improvement" in China's attitude. Beijing used to refuse all contact with people who expressed concern about China's human rights, but the dalai lama said Beijing has been less intransigent lately. He called on governments to keep raising the issue of human rights violations, not just in China but everywhere.

Some one hundred Chinese protested against the visit of the dalai lama in front of the parliament building.