< FREEDOM FOR TIBET/DEMOCRACY IN CHINA ! - #55 >

Newsletter on the campaigns of the Radical Party for the freedom of Tibet and the democracy on China.

"I truly believe that individuals can make a difference in society. Since periods of great change such as the present one come so rarely in human history, it is up to each of us to make the best use of our time to help create a happier world".

Tenzin GYATSO, the Fourteenth Dalai Lama, 1992

Number 55 - March 27th, 1997

Editors office: Massimo Lensi, Dorottya u. 3.III.em6 - 1051 Budapest (H)Tel. +36-1-266.34.86 - 266.09.35 Fax. +36-1-11.87.937

E-mail: M.Lensi@agora.stm.it WWW-URL http://www.agora.stm.it/pr - Telnet: Agora.stm.it

Distribution; Alberto Novi, rue Belliard 89, Rem 508, 1047 Brussels (B)Tel: +32-2-2304121 - Fax: +32-2-2303670

Published in English, Spanish, French, Italian, Hungarian, Croatian and Rumanian

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FOR THE OPENING OF NEGOTIATIONS BETWEEN CHIN AND TIBET

We publish in this issue of "Tibet-China Fax" a first series of documents on the Geneva manifestations and the political initiatives connected with it: the important speech on the future prospects of the movement for the liberation of occupied Tibet by TRP secretary Olivier Dupuis, the March 12th resolution on Tibet by the European Parliament, and all the way to the 1998 Satyagraha.

The Satyagraha is a non-violent political action methodology that seeks to obtain the objective we have fixed in these months of initiatives and political struggle: the opening of Sino-Tibetan negotiations concerning the future of the "Roof of the World." For this reason - and for all the reasons that have motivated us to promote the numerous political campaigns of the last few months - it is necessary to immediately mobilize for the other initiatives in progress: from the appeal of the Parliamentarians to the Secretary General of the U.N. to receive the Dalai Lama (an appeal that has collected the signatures of more than 1,300 Parliamentarians worldwide) to the "Plaza for Tibet " campaign.

There are still many roads to travel, many objectives along the way, and many other nonviolent initiatives and dialogues for the freedom of occupied Tibet and for democracy in China.

Good Work

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SPEECH BY OLIVIER DUPUIS,

GENERAL SECRETARY OF THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY, DURING THE DEMONSTRATION "FREEDOM FOR TIBET" IN GENEVA

Geneva, March 9th, 1997

Hello! I should like to start by drawing your attention to less pleasant issues: I would like to discuss with you matters of utmost importance. I am presently witnessing within the European Parliament an attempt, for the following week, for the session at Strasbourg to transform the ultimate goals of the Tibetan people, of the Dalai Lama, of the Tibetan government in exile and transform them into a cultural and religious autonomy. Which, as you probably know, is a thousand miles away from that which our Tibetan friends want and from what we all want. A proposal for a resolution has been deposited by the socialist MP Colajanni and the Spanish MP Colom y Naval. In co-operation with our friends from The Tibetan Intergroup in the European Parliament we are working on preventing such a thing from happening, on preventing from being in vain all those years of hard work, of strenuous efforts in and outside the EP, the years of exertion for all of us here and the thousands of others in Europe or anywhere around the

world that are working for and supporting Tibet's cause; we are trying to prevent events from going backwards, the way they were 10 years ago, and to turn our wishes, hopes, and willingness as well as that of the Tibetan people into a cultural and religious autonomy.

We all know the way things stand in Tibet. Point number one on the agenda now is the liberation of Tibet, liberty and democracy for the Tibetan people and, in addition, democracy for all our Chinese friends.

In the belief that this is a very positive fact, I wuold also like to salute particularly cordially our Chinese friends whose delegation was numerous. All the leaders of China's Federation for Democracy are now with us, particularly the sister of someone very dear to us. Wei Shan Shan, Wei Jingseng's sister is one of us and a very dear friend. This is a clear sign that our struggle is winning ground. Among the positive things is that we are numerous, abundant, and that our programme is not as it was initially. Furthermore, I believe that after a while we will also be able to impress choreographiically with all those lights and candles lit up and manifested in support for the liberty of Tibet, for the democracy in China, for the liberty in eastern Turkestan and for the liberty of inner Mongolia.

Therefore, we are only at the beginning of the road. Something else that I wish to add. It could be seen as a precondition for all of us to work better, more efficiently in the months that follow. What I feel all our attention should concentrate upon is the simple fact that we cannot afford to continue working in a disorganised manner.

We must strenthen our organization, communication and all activities, and in order to come out and take action we shouldn't wait for the arrival of the 10th of March or the several weeks preceeding this date. This year our campaign "A Flag for Tibet" has succeded in drawing 700-800 municipalities accepting and following our initiative and we should continue to act in accordance with that which we had decided in Bonn which would be realized by 1998, by which date there will be, in effect, throughout Europe and throughout the world thousands of mayors who will have hung up the Tibetan flag and by which point our work will have become genuinely efficient.

There is also another initiative that has gained success in the course of these past few days "A place named after Tibet". I am sure that you understand the significant importance of this initiative because the name of a street which is Tibet is something that remains and that doesn't go away. Among the first to associate with this initiative was a community in Switzerland, called Veyrier, in the vicinity of Geneva which has decide to grant the name Tibet to one of the squares. I reckon that in the successive days and weeks there would be hundreds of Swiss, French, German and many other communities throughout Europe that would have named a street after Tibet. And there will be one such street in Strasbourg, in Paris, In Brussels, and in every other place all over the world. This is something that each of us should start considering, it is not necessary to be an MP or a member of a community council in order to start putting pressure on the members of Council until a point to which those communities will mult

iply.

Indeed, I believe that these last 2 or 3 years have seen the movement for Tibet assume a dimension that is without a paragon in comparison to that of 5 or 10 years ago. But I also think that we have reached a point at which we, each and everyone of us, should make an effort to give anything that we are able to give, more than we have given so far in order to start acting more efficiently, to start acting according to all international institutions, in order to submit to the rules of governments and also to oblige the parliaments so that we can suceed in effectively affronting the issues of the liberty of Tibet and the democracy in China. These issues have been talked over a lot and have thus become united under this slogan, under a desire, a feeling of urgency and necessity, under a single word which is "Satyagraha 98" chosen as a slogan for Tibet's liberty.

There are, indeed, many things which were said regarding the question of what should this word be, and what should it mean. In my opinion there still exists much confusion over this, and i think it is necessary to know that Satyagraha is not an objective, but a metodology. The Satyagraha is a way of acting. The objective is that of Dalai Lama, of the Tibetan government in exile, that of all our Tibetan friends in Tibet. Our ultimate goal is tha autonomy, but an autonomy that is strong, real, complete for all matters that touch the lives of the Tibetans living in Tibet except for, as the Dalai Lama said, the defence policy and the foreign policy. And therefore this could never be disputed over. These are our objectives and Satyagraha is just the medium, the instrument, the organized nonviolence which we have yet to create, imagine up and invent, day after day until this objective becomes a reality in Tibet and until, in the very near future, Tibet is liberated. I think, therefore, that in every European city,

in every city that you may be coming from, people should start considering and putting on the agendaas well as circulate those ideas until, in the following months rather than weeks, we begin to work seriously and begin to work also in co-operation with our friends from the USA, Australia, India, until eventually, in 1998 the movement Satyagraha has grown equivalent to the power quantity of the anti-war movements for Vietnam in the 60s. Hundreds of thousands of people all over the world on the same day, at the same hour, with the same slogan and with the same demands will take part in the demonstrations, the hunger strikes, the sit-ins and many other ideas that we'll come up with, as I believe imagination is one of our strong points. Together, we will launch a movement that, in contrast with that about Vietnam will not be an ANTI movement, but rather, a FOR movement. It will be FOR the liberty of Tibet, for the democracy in China. I believe that if we find within ourselves the strengh, the power to be FOR,

we will have no difficulty finding the the strengh to stay together, and to become tens of thousands next year on the 10th of March, and to start right here right now.

Well, we'll make it at least 20 thousand next year!

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A PLAZA FOR TIBET

Under the initiative of the Transnational Radical Party it has been requested that the mayors of the world dedicate a plaza or a street to "Free Tibet." It is a small yet important action of politics and solidarity that any person can initiate in his or her own community administration so that people will become more aware and well-informed on the tragedy in Tibet. The cities that have already dedicated plazas or streets to Tibet are: Veyrier (Switzerland); Lievin (France); Mazingarbe (France). Similar administrative procedures have been set in motion in Woluwe`-Saint Pierre (Belgium), Amurrio (Spain), Villeneuve D'Asq and Les Pennes-Mirabeau (France), and Catanzaro and Bologna (Italy).

The information on the communal procedures for obtaining the re-nomination of a plaza or street are available through the secretary of the community. More information on this campaign can be requested from the Transnational Radical Party in Brussels.

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MANIFESTATION AND PRESS RELEASE MARCH 9-10

BUDAPEST

In Budapest on March 8th approximately 400 persons reunited before the Chinese embassy in the Hungarian capital to demonstrate against the violation of human rights in China and to ask for the opening of Sino-Tibetan negotiations between Peking and the Tibetan government in exile. The manifestation was organized by "Tibetet Segito Tarsasag" and the Transnational Radical Party. Participants included Chope Paljor TSERING (Representative of the Dalai Lama in Budapest), Gabor FODOR (Deputy and president of the Tibet Intergroup in the Hungarian Parliament), Tibor HENDREY (President of the TSG in Budapest), and Marina SIKORA (Representative of the TRP).

Press Release

* Hungary

- "Manifestation for Tibet": Kisalfold (Daily), Feb. 14th;

- "A Flag for Tibet": Zalai Hirlap (Daily), Feb. 14th;

- "What we can do for Tibet in Hungary": Vas Nepe (Daily), Feb. 12th;

- "Hungarian Message to China": Vas Nepe (Daily), Feb. 19th;

- "Flag for Tibet": Delvilag (Daily) Feb. 20th;

- "Flag for Tibet": Delmagyrorszag (Daily), Feb. 20th;

- "Manifestation for Tibet": Nepszava (Daily) March 4th;

- "Manifestation on March 10th for the freedom of Tibet": Fejer Megyei Hirlap (Daily), March 4th;

- "Solidarity with Tibet": Uj Magyarorszag (Daily), March 4th;

- "Solidarity for Tibet": Kisalfold (Daily), March 4th;

- "Tibet is here, above us": Blikk (Daily), March 5th;

- "Anniversary for Tibet": Magyar Nemzet (Daily), March 10th;

- "Manifestation for Tibet": Magyar Nemzet (Daily) March 10th;

- "Manifestation in support of Tibet": Fejer Megyei Hirlap (Daily), March 10th.

- "They descended on the plaza for the freedom of Tibet": Blikk (Daily), March 10th;

- "For Tibet": Jaszkun Kronika (Daily), March 11th;

- "A Day for Tibet on the Spektrum Channel": Naplo (Daily), March 10th;

- "Tibet is not far from here": Jaszkun Kronika (Daily), March 11th;

- "Manifestation for Tibet": Reform (Weekly), March 11th;

Czech Republic

- "The Tibetan Flag flies over towns in protest": Mlada Front (Daily), March 10th;

- "Tibetan Flags over communities": Zemske Noviny (Daily); March 10th;

- "The Tibetan Flag flies on community flagpoles": Telegraf (Daily), March 10th.

- "Tibetans Manifest in Geneva": Prace (Daily), March 10th;

- "The Tibetan Flag flies over the town of Zizkov": Praha Denes (daily), March 10th;

- "Yesterday the people of Kladno expressed their support of Tibet": Mlada Front Dnes (Daily), March 11th;

- "The town of Litomerice flies the Tibetan Flag": Zemske Noviny (Daily), March 11th;

- "The town of Zizkov will fly the Tibetan Flag": Mlada Front Denes (Daily), March 6th.

* Italy

- Raiuno TSP (TV), Feb. 22nd: news report on the organization of the Geneva manifestation and the candidacy of Wei for the Nobel Peace Prize. Interview with Francesca Scopelliti, Italian Senator.

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SECOND PAGE

We publish the Resolution on Tibet approved on March 12th by the European Parliament under the initiative of the ARE group (Radical European Alliance), PPE, Liberals, and Greens.

Resolution on Tibet

The European Parliament,

- having regard to its previous resolutions on Tibet,

A. whereas the Chinese authorities continue their repression in occupied Tibet,

B. whereas His Holiness the Dalai Lama proposes to start negotiations on the future of Tibet between the Chinese Government and the Tibetan Government in exile, notably on autonomy and self-government for the Tibetan people,

C. whereas the three UN General Assembly resolutions passed in 1959, 1961 and 1965 acknowledged Tibet's right to self-determination,

1. Reiterates its condemnation of the continuing human rights violations by the Chinese authorities in Tibet;

2. Supports the Dalai Lama's proposal on negotiations on the future of Tibet and invites the Chinese Government to react in an official and positive way to this proposal;

3. Asks the Council, the Member States and the Commission to do everything possible in theframework of the relations between the Union and the Republic of China and the United Nations in order to bring the two sides together with a view to reaching an agreement which satisfies the legitimate requests of the Tibetan people;

4. Calls on the governments of the Member States to have the question of Tibet's occupation and decolonization placed on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly;

5. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments of the Member States, the Government of the People's Republic of China, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan Government in exile and the United Nations.