Uighur unrest shows China's failures - Dalai Lama

[Coventina]

Source: Reuters

By Laura MacInnis GENEVA, Aug 6 (Reuters) - Ethnic riots in northwest China have exposed the failings of Beijing's minority policies, and a more "realistic" stance toward Tibetans and others could emerge within a decade, the Dalai Lama said on Thursday.

On a visit to Geneva, he said there were no talks under way between Beijing and the exiled Tibetans he leads on the future of Chinese rule in his Himalayan homeland.

The Tibetan spiritual leader said the Uighur unrest in Xinjiang province in July, in which 197 people died according to the official death toll, showed the need for the Chinese Communist Party to rethink its approach.

"The time has come," the Nobel Peace Prize winner said.

"Their policy basically failed to bring enthusiasm in the minority people," he said, citing a lack of trust and little feeling of a "concept of we" across different Chinese groups.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL6213988