Paris Honors the Dalai Lama
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008Are city officials in Paris apologetic about the decidedly mixed reception China’s Olympic flame received there on 7 April, where it was greeted by protesters objecting to Chinese policy in Tibet and even found its route through the city somewhat truncated out of security concerns?
It seems not. As the Nouvel Observateur reports, the Paris city council yesterday made the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen, at the urging of mayor Bertrand Delanoë. What is more, as mayor Delanoë made clear in a public statement, “Paris desires as well, by this gesture, to assure its brotherly support to the people of Tibet, who are trying to defend the most elementary of their rights: their dignity, their liberty, and quite simply their lives.”
