Hundreds of Tibetan flags began invading the Swiss city of Geneva during the first hours of the morning. Drums and Tibetan horns accompanied the hours of waiting before the Second European Manifestation for the freedom of occupied Tibet. Approximately 3,000 people from numerous European countries reunited before the gates of the United Nations on Sunday, March 9th to request the opening of Sino-Tibetan negotiations. The largest groups of those present were those from Lione, Marseille, Grenoble, Bordeaux, Milan, Florence, and the Tibetan community in Switzerland.

The speeches began at 1:00 pm on a cold day. After the introduction of the Minister of Foreign Affairs Kalon Tashi WANGHDI, speeches were delivered by WEI Shan Shan (the sister of Chinese dissident WEI Jingsheng), LU Yang (member of the Federation for a Democratic China), James MOORHOUSE (European Deputy and president of the Tibet Intergroup in the European Parliament), Gianfranco DELL'ALBA (European Deputy), Vesca OLSOMMER (Member of the Grand Council of the province of Geneva), Erkin ALPTEKIN (President of the "Allied Committee of the People of Eastern Turkistan, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet") TEMTSILTU (Mongol exile and member of the "Allied Committee"), Tereza GANZ-ARAS (Croatian Deputy), Francesco SPERONI (Italian Deputy), WANG Fu-Chen (Chinese dissident), Claude LEVINSON (writer and President of the Swiss CSPT) and Olivier DUPUIS (Secretary of the TRP).

After a handful of musical interludes and the delivery of greetings from the numerous Tibet Support Groups, among whom were Clemens LUDWIG of the TID and Thomas NAGANT of "Les Amis du Tibet" (Belgium), the march to the shore of the lake began, where, at 6:00 pm European Commissioner Emma BONINO and Lobsang GANGSONTSHANG, President of the "Swiss Tibetan Friendship Association" delivered speeches. The candles for the vigil of the nonviolent Lhasa uprising were then lit between 7:00- 8:00 pm in a beautiful circle around the lake.

The next day the demonstrators reunited once more before the United Nations, where the representative of the Dalai Lama in Geneva, Chungdak D. KOREN, delivered a speech written by His Holiness for the occasion of the 38th anniversary of the nonviolent Lhasa uprising. Speakers who followed included Jigme SIMUR (President of the Tibetan Youth Association in Europe), XIU Haitao (Vice President of the Federation for Democracy in China), Piero VERNI (President of "Italy-Tibet"), and Olivier DUPUIS (Secretary of the TRP). The day concluded with a speech by Kalon Tashi WANGHDI and with a final "thank you" from Tenzin EMCHI, President of the Tibetan Community in Switzerland. At 3:50 pm a group of

Tibetan children delivered a petition requesting the release of the Panchen Lama to Gerh Mautner-Markholf, Representative of the UN High Commission on Human Rights.