Chancellor must advocate for a real dialogue between the Chinese and the Tibetans!

Prior to Chancellor Merkel's visit to China, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) asked her to try to persuade the Chinese government to take up the dialogue between China and Tibet again. "Judging by the bitterly high number of new self-immolations, it is clear that the Tibetan's are in great distress because of the Chinese Tibet-policy. The protests will only calm down if a real dialogue between the Chinese government and the Tibetan government in exile takes place at last. Please show some commitment in this sense while in Beijing – and try to save some lives," the STP wrote to the Chancellor on Tuesday. "Instead of sentencing the Tibetans to long prison terms because of peaceful protests, China should take its own constitution seriously and guarantee a freedom of expression."

The ninth and – so far – last round of debates between China and the Tibetan government in exile took place in January 2010. No results were achieved. Finally, in June 2012, the Tibetan envoy Lodi Gyari and his deputy Kelsang Gyaltsen had announced to step back because they were disappointed by the lack of progress in the dialogue with the People's Republic of China.

According to the STP, the 18-year-old monk Lobsang Kalsang and the 17-year-old monk Damchoek burned themselves on Monday – in front of the Kirti monastery in the Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan province. In hospital, both of them fell victim to their severe injuries. At least 51 Tibetans burned themselves as a form of protest against the Chinese reign since 2009.

Last Friday, a Tibetan nun was beaten and arrested by Chinese security forces in the Tibetan settlement area of Kardze, Sichuan Province, because she had protested peacefully for Tibet to be free and for the return of the Dalai Lama.