Message-ID: <1387@fme.knooppunt.be>
To: Pr.Bruxelles@agora.stm.it
Date: Fri, 28 Feb 1997 14:44:59
Subject: Re: FREE TIBET BIKE TOUR - newsrelease# 1
From: int@fme.knooppunt.be (Pol D'Huyvetter)
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For immediate release - please network following release!!
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For Mother Earth bikes for a Free Tibet
from UN in Geneva to Tibetan border in 1999
Gent (Belgium), February 23rd 1997 - For Mother Earth is calling people to join a 'Free Tibet Bike Tour' in 1999, to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the Chinese invasion. The bikers will start their remarkable journey on March 10th 1999 at the UN HQ in Geneva (Switzerland) to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the national Tibetan uprising in Lhasa. They plan to end their journey in support of the Tibetan sovereignty on October 12th 1999 at the Nepalese - Tibetan border. October 12th is a global day of solidarity with Indigenous Peoples.
The bicycle tour will cover an estimated 15.000 km in seven months.
At this early time of planning two routes are considered from Geneva to Istanbul. One route could go across the Alps, to follow the coast of former Yuguslavia, across Albania and Greece, to Istanbul. The second could visit political significant centers in Paris, London, Brussels, Vienna, and go across central Europe to Istanbul. From Istanbul the bikers will head further east across Kurdistan, Iran, possible Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, to end at the Nepalese - Tibetan border.
The Free Tibet Bike Tour, which was initially proposed as a walk, received to date approval and support from Mr. Tempa Tsering, the secretary of the Department of Information and International relations of the Central Tibetan Administration, aswell as from the Tibetan Women's Association and the Tibetan Youth Congress, all based in exile in Dharamsala (India).
For Mother Earth, a human-rights, disarmament and ecological advocate, was founded as NGO in 1991. Today it counts chapters in ten countries. Its international campaign is anti-nuclear, non-violent and pro-renewable. The organisation campaigns for a halt of nuclear testing, outlawing of nuclear weapons and the complete phase-out of nuclear energy, while linking the issue to numerous human rights violations. Its most remarked actions were cross-continental peace walks. In 1992 an average of 100 people walked 3.500 miles from New York City to the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, a US and British atomic testing site which is based on the sacred lands of the Western Shoshone Indians. In 1995 an average of 80 people walked 5.500km from Brussels to Moscow. In April 1996, to mark the tenth anniversary of the largest industrial disaster ever, fifty FME-activists walked through radio-active inhabited areas in the Ukraine, where they ended their walk with a non-violent blockade of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
Pol D'Huyvetter, one of the founding members of For Mother Earth, and the initiator of the 'Free Tibet Bike Tour' states: 'The Tibetan people have been victim to the geo-political games.
Bordering India and Pakistan, their wonderful land, on the roof of the world, is today a strategic Chinese nuclear missile platform.
Today Tibet is poisoned with uranium mines and nuclear weapons fabrication facilities. The Tibetan story is very similar to the one of many other Indigenous Peoples around the globe. The Tibetans fell victim to the nuclear ambitions of China, as others did to the ones of Russia, USA, UK and France, The history is repeated time and time again, as Indigenous Peoples landrights continue to be brutally violated in the interest of this powergame by, let's face it and be honest, the permanent five members of the UN security council. Ignored and silenced, people are killed, the environment raped and poisoned, while diverse cultures destroyed. And although this racist policy is hard to stop, we know that together we can make a difference. The closure of the French nuclear test site in Polynesia is one of the latest victories in our opposition to nuclear colonialism. All we can do is continue our non-violent campaigns and actions, and continue to advocate a world where people determine their own future. We know this
action will inspire and empower many people to work together for a better world for all beings.'
A first preparation meeting with participants for the Free Tibet Bike Tour is scheduled on July 1st - 3rd 1997 at an international ecological camp near the nuclear power plant in construction of Temelin in the Czech Republic. For Mother Earth its general meeting decided that the participants will be completely responsable for all the aspects of the organisation of the Free Tibet Bike Tour.
For more info:
Free Tibet Bike Tour
c/o For Mother Earth International Office
Lange Steenstraat 16/D
9000 Gent - Belgium
Phone +32-9-233 84 39
Fax +32-9-233 73 02
E-mail: tibet@motherearth.knooppunt.be
Financial contributions are welcomed
Outside Belgium use international postal cheque to account # 000-1618561-19 - For Mother Earth, Gewad 15, 9000 Gent - Belgium mention: Free Tibet Bike Tour
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* For Mother Earth International office *
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* Lange Steenstraat 16/D, 9000 Gent, Belgium *
* Phone/fax +32-9-233 84 39 *
* E-mail: int@fme.knooppunt.be *
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* WWW:http://www.knooppunt.be/~fme *
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* Postal account: 000-1618561-19 *
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* For Mother Earth is member of Abolition 2000 - a global *
* network to eliminate nuclear weapons, the International Peace Bureau (IPB) and World Information Service on Energy (WISE) *
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* For Mother Earth has offices in Belgium, Slovakia,
Sri Lanka, USA,aswell as active members/groups in Belarus, Finland, Germany, Netherlands, Rumania and Ukraine *
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