Forwarded by TSG-UK 9 Islington Green London N1 2XH, 26 June 1995

Please write to the following expressing your dismay at the actions of the UN in censoring the statement of the Dalai Lama. Please seek an assurance that such an act will not be repeated in future UN publications or events.

Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali Secretary-General of the United Nations The United Nations New York NY10017 USA

Gillian Martin Sorenson Special Advisor to the Secretary-General for Public Policy UN Fiftieth Anniversary Secretariat The United Nations New York NY10017 USA

Jonathan Power Little House Boars Hill, Oxford 0X1 5DU

Telephone/fax: (44) (1865) 735 645

UNITED NATIONS BANS DALAI LAMA FROM 50TH ANNIVERSARY HISTORY, AUTHORS' NAMES WITHDRAWN United Nations censors have banned any reference to the Dalai Lama in a forthcoming history of the UN, saying mention of the exiled Tibetan leader is "not acceptable."

The deletion of the Dalai Lama is one of at least 70 cuts demanded by UN officials in the book, A Vision of Hope, commissioned for the 50th anniversary of the UN this month. The book has also been stripped of the names of countries the UN itself has called to account for human rights violations.

The cuts went ahead despite an appeal by the book's editor, Jonathan Power, former foreign affairs columnist of the International Herald Tribune, to UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali.

Mr Power said the cuts amounted to "intellectual cleansing".

His name and the names of all authors have been withdrawn from their articles in protest.

The chapter on human rights, written by Richard Reoch, a former senior official of Amnesty International, quoted a speech made by the Dalai Lama of Tibet at the 1993 World Conference on Human Rights. His Holiness said: "It is in the inherent nature of human beings to yearn for freedom, equality and dignity and they have an equal right to achieve that...Brute force, no matter how strongly applied, can never subdue the basic desire for freedom and dignity."

This was struck out by the Special Adviser to the Secretary-General for Public Policy, Gillian Martin Sorensen. In a letter to Mr Reoch she said, "The lines are not acceptable. There are many suitable quotations from other prominent individuals which could be used expressing the same point."

"This unilateral decision is an act of political censorship that breaches the UN Charter," said Mr Power.

Other cuts throughout the book include allegations that Iraq and North Korea have violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, reports of corruption in the election of World Health Organization chief Hiroshi Nakajima and the fact that British officials covered up the extent of the Irish famine of the 1840s.

A major article on UN peacekeeping by Jan Oberg, Swedish head of an international conflict-mitigation mission to former Yugoslavia and Georgia, was cut in 21 places. The passages deleted included analyses of UN operations in Iraq, Somalia and former Yugoslavia and a recommendation that membership of the UN Security Council be broadened.

Alecia de Clerq, winner of the 1993 regional Commonwealth Writers' Prize for Literature, was instructed to remove a passage quoting pressures brought to bear by UN officials on non-governmental organizations seeking to mention publicly the names of countries accused of trampling on human rights.

For further information please contact:

Jonathan Power: Oxford address, phone and fax on page one Richard Reoch: London phone/fax: (44) (171) 272 4271