GERMANY: Dalai Lama meets member of Chancellor Merkel's cabinet, stirs political controversy in Germany

Record ID: 860383

  • Title: GERMANY: Dalai Lama meets member of Chancellor Merkel's cabinet, stirs political controversy in Germany
  • Date: 19th May 2008
  • Summary: (BN10) BERLIN, GERMANY (MAY 19, 2008) (REUTERS) DALAI LAMA ARRIVING AT BERLIN HOTEL TIBET SUPPORTERS STANDING IN LINE, GREETING DALAI LAMA OUTSIDE HOTEL DALAI LAMA GETTING OUT OF CAR AS TIBET SUPPORTERS START SINGING PEOPLE HOLDING TIBETAN FLAGS ONLOOKING DALAI LAMA ENTERING BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 3rd June 2008 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Germany
  • City:
  • Country: Germany
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA43RZNM3OV8TS1ZQGN5D1NQNYU
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Dalai Lama meets member of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet, stirs political controversy in Germany.
    A member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's cabinet met Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, in Berlin on Monday (May 19) amid a growing political controversy in Germany.
    Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul of the Social Democrats (SPD) met the Dalai Lama at a Berlin hotel, one day after German newspapers reported that her meeting was not coordinated with SPD party leader Kurt Beck.
    According to a report in Sunday's "Welt am Sonntag"
    newspaper, Beck was "not informed in time" about Monday's meeting between the Dalai Lama and Wieczorek-Zeul.
    The paper wrote that Beck was "angry" and called the meeting an "assault" on Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, also a Social Democrat, who refused to see the Dalai Lama.
    German weekly "Der Spiegel" wrote that Steinmeier justified his refusal to receive the Dalai Lama by saying that there was a "real chance for a new start of talks between China and the spiritual leader"
    and that "thoughtless moves would endanger a concrete success."
    Chancellor Angela Merkel is currently on a state visit to several Latin American countries.
    After her meeting with the Dalai Lama, Wieczorek-Zeul told reporters "over the past few days there were several attempts to turn this meeting into party politics."

    "I believe this neither helps the people in the relevant region or the Dalai Lama," she said.
    Wieczorek-Zeul called her discussions "very good and also fruitful, covering a wide range of issues, among them the question of a fair creation of global development, the fight against poverty and the issue of human rights."
    The Dalai Lama will conclude his five-day visit to Germany later on Monday when he makes a speech at Brandenburg Gate.
    The event's organisers, Tibet Initiative Germany, hope to attract some 15,000 spectators.
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