US lawmakers urge Obama to meet the Dalai Lama

Washington: US lawmakers rallied behind the Dalai Lama and stepped up pressure on President Barack Obama to meet the Tibetan spiritual leader.

"China is now calling on US officials to refuse to meet with the Dalai Lama during his current visit. It must be clear that the US sides with the victims in Tibet, not the perpetrators in Beijing," said Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

"President Obama has an opportunity to make a strong statement about what we stand for by meeting with the Dalai Lama during his current visit, and I urge him to take it," she said in a statement after meeting the Tibetan spiritual leader along with other top Congressional leaders including the House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and the House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.

"It is always an honour and a pleasure to meet the Dalai Lama", Ros-Lehtinen said adding that the current crackdown taking place in China and throughout Tibet is more of the same brutality from Beijing.

"Additionally, Beijing is implementing new policies to wipe out the Tibetan culture, such as facilitating the immigration of Han Chinese into Tibet and forcing Tibetan herders to leave the plateau and resettle in concrete block apartments," she said.

"China must not be given a pass for its policies toward Tibet and the Tibetan people," she demanded.

The Republican Congresswoman expressed disappointment that the Obama Administration has failed to make human rights in Tibet and China a priority, and has instead made a number of concessions on the issue, including Obama's decision not to meet with the Dalai Lama during a 2009 visit.

The White House, so far has refrained from making any comment on if the Dalai Lama would be meting Obama during his current 11-day Washington trip.

"It is up to the US and other responsible nations to pressure Beijing to end its brutal policies against the people of China and Tibet," she said.

During a recent Committee hearing examining the status of religious freedom, democracy, and human rights in Asia, Ros-Lehtinen urged Obama to meet the Dalai Lama during his current visit.