Swiss newspaper: apology from Dalai Lama extremely important

Nenue: Did they seek for foster families through media afterwards?

Ueli Meier: Aeschimann targeted the media resources from the very beginning. The second child he adopted, who was a little girl, was killed in an accident. Therefore, he asked the Dalai Lama for a third child, as the Dalai Lama had guaranteed before on one condition that more exiled Tibetan children would come to Switzerland. And this time about 20 Tibetan children were sent to Switzerland. In order to help these children to find enough foster homes, several media started a campaign. Especially Vinay Warren Begg, a famous political commentator, called for Swiss people to adopt Tibetan children in his own column of Breaking Clouds (an ironic humor magazine in Switzerland). More than 300 families responded since then .

Nenue: How to deal with the applications of adopting Tibetan children?

Ueli Meier: The applications were all given to Aeschimann, then he invited every couple to his home in Olten for checking. Later he connected the elder sister of the Dalai Lama who was working in the children welfare home in Dharamsala. Then she chose several children who were able to be adopted by the Swiss families.

Nenue: Was the whole process ignored by the federal authority of Switzerland?

Ueli Meier: Yes, the federal Upper House decided to accept thousands of Tibetan refugees, who were chosen by the Red Cross based on family units. On the other hand, all the large international relief agencies were working hard to improve the refugees' life in Dharamsala during the 1960s.

Nenue: Why did the Dalai Lama send these children who already had parents or at least had one parent to the distant Switzerland?

Ueli Meier: At this point, we could only refer to the letters between Charles Aeschimann and the Dalai Lama for reference. The only purpose of the Dalai Lama we interpreted in the letter is that he wanted these children to gain western standard education. In the future, the children would serve the Tibetan society as elites, changing Tibet from the Middle Ages to a modern society. However, the Tibetan leader said nothing about the children's mental stress because of being away from their parents. Instead, the term "children dealing" was mentioned many times in the letteres.

Nenue: The original intent of the Dalai Lama has obviously failed. Hardly any of the children taken by Charles Aeschimann to Switzerland has ever returned to their hometown.

Ueli Meier: At this point, there were divergences between the Dalai Lama's wishes and Charles Aeschimann's pragmatism from the very beginning. The transcripts of the police station's foreign affairs office in 1961 wrote that Charles Aeschimann and people around him were aware of the fact that no children would return to Asia. The Dalai Lama had to give up and agreed that those children could be adopted after they reached puberty.

Nenue: How did the Dalai Lama evaluate the adoption project that he was jointly responsible for?

Ueli Meier: My request for an interview regarding the DVD edition of the film was presented personally by the head of the Tibet Bureau in Geneva to the Dalai Lama. Unfortunately, the Dalai Lama replied to the request with silence.

Nenue: Apart from the personal misfortune, have the Tibetan children in exile lived a happy life ever?

Ueli Meier: The fate of my protagonists Tibi, despite all the tragedy, certainly is still among the fortunate ones. There are certainly other former foster children who were able to make peace with themselves and their destiny. On the other side I have known many tragic stories during the filming research. It is noteworthy that, according to a study conducted by the University of Zurich in 1982, among the Tibetans who grew up in Switzerland, only the group of the known "Aeschimann Children" committed suicide.

Nenue: No victim claimed compensation. How do you see it?

Ueli Meier: Devout Tibetans will not do that. "His Holiness the Dalai Lama" is the living God, as if the God father. But I am convinced that it would be of extreme importance to some of the former foster children if the Dalai Lama would perhaps apologize to them.

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