"Promoting universal human values", starting from the respect of life. This is the first commitment which the Dalai Lama, who visited the EU Parliament today, intends to take on, "so that love, sympathy, mutual respect will always take pride of place". "Reason stated the Buddhist religious leader should never prevail over these principles; it must always serve life". According to the Dalai Lama, "a distorted use of technology, associated with intolerance and spurred by hatred, has led us to September 11th" and to all its consequences. The other two priorities, he confirmed in front of the EU MPs and the journalists working in Brussels, are "harmony between religions and the defence of the cause of Tibet", for which "freedom is desirable" and "the culture and nature of which "must be preserved. Still about the situation in his country, the Dalai Lama stated that "the Chinese have destroyed six thousand monasteries"; then, he added that "the real situation of human rights in China is not of course that of fifty years ago now, but they still have a long way to go" to guarantee justice, freedom and democracy.
