_________________ WTN-L World Tibet Network News _________________

Published by: The Canada Tibet Committee

Editorial Board: Brian Given, Conrad Richter, Nima Dorjee,

Tseten Samdup, Thubten (Sam) Samdup

WTN Editors: wtn-editors@tibet.ca

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Issue ID: 00/02/23 Compiled by Thubten (Sam) Samdup

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Wednesday, February 23, 2000

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Contents:

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1. Dalai Lama makes online debut

2. Goldman Sachs' PetroChina Offering Would Fund China's

Occupation of Tibet

3. Tokyo governor insists he will meet Dalai Lama

4. Japan "Cautious" About Inviting China To G8 Summit

5. NZ to hold inquiry into police handling of Jiang demonstrations

6. Lettre des parlementaires au Ministre des Affaires Etrangères

7. Declaration d'Olivier Dupuis, secretaire du Parti Radical et

depute europeen

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1. Dalai Lama makes online debut

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BBC News Online

Wednesday, 23 February, 2000

The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has said he envisages a

return to his homeland in his lifetime, in his first live, online

interview.

The Dalai Lama answered questions e-mailed to BBC News Online from users

around the world, via a video-phone link from the Indian hill town of

Dharamsala.

Questions put to the spiritual leader by the BBC's South Asia

correspondent, Mike Wooldridge, ranged from the internet to the future

of Tibet.

Returning home

Dharamsala, which sits at the foot of the Himalayas in the northern

Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, has been the Dalai Lama's home since

1959.

But the spiritual leader told BBC News Online that rapid changes taking

place on a global level - and in particular Asia and China - had given

him hope that a "mutually agreeable solution" could be found, to enable

him to return to Tibet.

Tens of thousands of people followed the Tibetan leader when he fled his

homeland after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Power of the internet

The community has a strong online presence, with messages from the

spiritual leader being regularly posted on an official Tibetan

Government in Exile website.

In his first interactive, online interview, the Dalai Lama told the BBC

that the internet was "very useful" tool for disseminating clear and

accurate information around the world.

"It will make clear what is truth, what is reality and what is false

propaganda," he said.

"I think that each individual should use their own intelligence or mind

to investigate further."

Messages of goodwill

In a display of enthusiasm for the medium, the Dalai Lama used the

one-and-a-half-minute delay in transmission of the interview to rush

into an adjoining room to watch himself live on a computer linked to the

internet.

Wednesday's interview coincided with 60th anniversary of the Dalai

Lama's enthronement, and thousands of News Online users had taken the

opportunity to e-mail messages of goodwill.

Celebrations in Dharamsala last week brought together the heads of all

the schools of Tibetan Buddhism, including the 14-year-old Karmapa Lama

who escaped from Tibet last December.

Answering a question from Canada on the role of the young leader, the

Dalai Lama described him as "one of the highest leaders in the

community" and said he possessed a "very clear and strong" spirit.

"If he is properly developed and trained, certainly he can make a great

contribution," he said.

In answer to a question about how he maintains his optimism for a more

autonomous Tibet in the face of life's setbacks, he said that it was

helped by the strong spirit among Tibetans and inside Tibet.

"Our cause is a just cause. That is my fundamental belief," he said. "So

there are reasons to feel hope and optimism," he said.

And, asked where he dreamt of returning to most in Tibet, he replied his

former monastery.

"Sometimes I wish the rest of my life may be spent somewhere in Tibet

with clean air, bright sky and hopefully a clean mind. That's my wish."

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2. Goldman Sachs' PetroChina Offering Would Fund China's

Occupation of Tibet

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Contact: John Hocevar, Lhadon Tethong 212-594-5898

Students for a Free Tibet

U.S. Tibet Committee

The Milarepa Fund

New York, February 23, 2000 - Citing significant financial and political

risk factors, key players in the Tibet Movement are calling on investors

to not buy shares of PetroChina, a controversial state-owned company

poised to list on the New York, London and Hong Kong Stock Exchanges.

Engaged in a global effort to secure oil and gas resources, PetroChina

and its parent company, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) - a

state-run monolith laden with debt and implicated in the deaths of

nearly 2 million Sudanese - are seeking a massive injection of capital

from foreign investors. The $5 - $10 billion initial public offering

(IPO) brokered by Goldman Sachs would help finance the extraction of

Tibet's oil and gas resources for use in mainland China and provide

funds to advance China's colonization of Tibet.

An operation of this scale would severely impact the Tibetan people.

Resettlement of large numbers of Chinese gas workers into northeastern

Tibet would bolster China's decades long practice of moving Chinese

settlers into Tibet to strengthen its grip on the occupied country.

This policy of population transfer has already reduced Tibetans to a

minority in much of their own nation and increased ethnic tensions in

the area. Both Tibet and East Turkistan (Xianjiang), the regions

targeted by PetroChina's operations, are tinderboxes of suppressed

nationalist rage. Widespread civil unrest is prevalent, with bus bombs

and attacks on oil pipelines reported in East Turkistan.

"Goldman Sachs and PetroChina are really playing with fire," said John

Hocevar, Executive Director of Students for a Free Tibet (SFT).

"Heightened industrial operations in these already tense regions will

only exacerbate the situation. With 500,000 Chinese soldiers deployed

already, how many more will be needed to maintain control?"

Adding to this, the environmental impacts of PetroChina's exploration

and extraction in this fragile high altitude ecosystem would be

disastrous. Given its record in China's Daqing oil fields, PetroChina's

operations would likely shatter the delicate balance of the regions

environment and further disrupt the traditional way of life of the

Tibetan and Mongolian nomads.

Tibet's oil reserves are in the Tsaidam Basin, the same region in which

the World Bank drew a storm of international criticism for its proposed

resettlement of nearly 60,000 Chinese farmers. That project has been

stalled by intensive grassroots opposition, and is now under

investigation by the Bank's Inspection Panel.

Leading activist groups in the Tibetan Freedom Movement have begun

distributing information about the offer and organizing a grassroots

campaign to stop the PetroChina IPO. Coalition members like SFT, an

organization with over 500 chapters worldwide, are calling on

universities, public employee mutual funds and other potential investors

to avoid the stock. If the IPO is successful they intend to launch a

broad-based international divestment campaign against PetroChina.

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3. Tokyo governor insists he will meet Dalai Lama

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TOKYO, Feb 23 (AFP) - Tokyo's outspoken governor Shintaro Ishihara

reportedly insisted Wednesday he will meet Tibet's spiritual leader, the

Dalai Lama, and defied anyone to argue with him.

"Either in March or in April, he will definitely come. I am going to

meet him since I have known him for a long time," Ishihara was quoted by

Jiji Press as saying.

"What is wrong with a governor meeting his friend at his office? I want

to ask whoever opposes it," he told reporters.

But a representative for the Dalai lama said the meeting, which would

likely infuriate China, had yet to be finalised.

"Everybody understands these two leaders would be interested to meet

each other," said the Dalai Lama's representative in Japan and East

Asia, Karma Gelek Yuthok.

"But we have not made so far anything as a confirmed plan because we

have to judge many related things," he told AFP. "If there is no problem

at all such a meeting could go ahead."

The critical question would be the attitude of Japan's central

government, said the Dalai Lama's representative.

"If they think it is all right then I think there would not be much

other obstacle," he said. "We always try to be careful and considerate

of the host government."

The central government said it was considering a visa request from the

Dalai Lama, who is planning to visit Japan from April 13-20.

"The government is not aware of any meeting with Governor Ishihara but

we do know (the Dalai Lama) asked the government to issue him a visa and

it is now being processed," said Chief Cabinet Secretary Mikio Aoki.

"I cannot say how his request is being processed but I do not see any

reason for rejecting it," he told a news conference.

The visa had nothing to do with China, said the chief cabinet secretary.

"But if you asked me to link it with China, the Japanese government

regards the Tibet issue as an internal matter and its stance will not

change."

The Dalai Lama's representative said the governor's "supportive views on

Tibet and interest are well known," but stressed that plans for a

meeting were still open.

He said he hoped no conditions would be attached to the Dalai Lama's

visit to Japan.

The outspoken Tokyo governor, a frequent critic of China, said after he

was inaugurated in April last year that he could not accept China's

"inhumane policy on Tibet."

Deeply conservative, he also told a US magazine in 1990 that the Nanjing

massacre was a "fabrication" by China. China says 300,000 people were

killed when the Japanese army went on the rampage after capturing

Nanjing in 1937.

The Dalai Lama was likely to apply for a visa to visit South Korea once

the Japan visa had been granted, his representative here said.

Initial discussions indicated "there is no clear negative sign from the

Korean side," he said. "It seems like it is being considered at the

highest level."

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in northern India since he fled Tibet

in 1959 after China brutally suppressed an uprising against Chinese

rule.

Since then he has been an outspoken critic of China's human rights

record in Tibet and has sought autonomy for the region. In response,

Beijing has sought to isolate him.

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4. Japan "Cautious" About Inviting China To G8 Summit

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TOKYO, Feb 22, 2000 -- (Reuters) Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi

was quoted as saying on Monday that the western view of China's human

rights record was making him cautious about inviting Beijing to July's

G8 Summit in Okinawa.

"The way Japan looks at China and the way the world looks at it are a

bit different. In Europe and in the United States, Tiananmen and Tibet

are what symbolize China. So we must be cautious (about inviting

China)," Obuchi was quoted as saying, in an apparent reference to the

1989 crackdown of student protesters in Tiananamen Square and the

independent movement in Tibet.

Yoshiro Mori, secretary-general of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party

(LDP), told reporters Obuchi made the comment in a meeting with the

heads of two other parties which make up Japan's ruling coalition.

Obuchi is the president of the LDP.

But Mori added that Obuchi was not saying whether the issue of inviting

China to the summit of the world's richest nations and Russia was either

"good or bad".

While some Japanese are calling for China to attend the summit,

government sources have said nothing has been decided about Beijing's

particiation in the meeting, which brings together the United States,

Japan, France, Germany, Britain, Canada, Italy and Russia.

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5. NZ to hold inquiry into police handling of Jiang demonstrations

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WELLINGTON, Feb 23 (AFP) - New Zealands parliament is to hold an inquiry

into the way police here handled demonstrators during the state visit of

Chinese President Jiang Zemin last year.

The role of former prime minister Jenny Shipley in the police's

dispersal of protesters outside a Christchurch state banquet is likely

to come under scrutiny.

Jiang refused to attend the dinner until a small but noisy group of

protesters were forcibly moved from near the hotel, despite their being

no arrests and no apparent breaches of the law.

Parliamentary justice and electoral committee chairman Tim Barnett vowed

the inquiry would "leave no stone unturned in its search for the truth".

To be carried out by a sub committee chaired by ruling Labour MP Janet

Mackey, the inquiry will call for public submissions and a report by

June.

It will look into civil liberties issues raised by the handling of

demonstrations in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

Jiang caused a near diplomatic furore in Christchurch, refusing to show

for more than 90 minutes due to a noisy protest over China's treatment

of Tibet.

Two AFP correspondents present saw no law breaking but a large squad of

police arrived along with buses and cars with sirens. With the buses

moved in to block the view, the police forced the protesters back and

with the sirens used it to block out the protesters noise.

Moments after they had pushed the protesters around the corner, and with

the sirens still going, Jiang was quickly hurried into the building.

Shipley denied any involvement in what happened amid allegations that

she or her department had intervened, saying it was a police decision,

based on "public safety" concerns which have never been spelt out.

Mackey said it would be "absolutely unfair" to suggest the inquiry would

be a Shipley witch-hunt.

"We will talk to the relevant departments or people who were involved,"

she said.

"Certainly if Mrs Shipley's name comes up then she is as likely to be

questioned as anyone else's name who came up.

"I have no preconceived notion as to what path that committee will take

-- that will be determined by the members of the committee."

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6. Lettre des parlementaires au Ministre des Affaires Etrangères

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A l'occasion de la visite du Ministre des Affaires Etrangères français

en Inde les présidents des groupes parlementaires pour le Tibet au Sénat

et à l'Assemblée Nationale lui ont adressé une lettre rappelant

l'importance d'une solution négociée au Tibet, permettant le maintien de

l'identité tibétaine et le respect des droits de l'homme, indispensables

à la paix dans la région.

Evoquant le sort, toujours inconnu, du petit Panchen Lama et l'arrivée

en Inde du Karmapa, les parlementaires concluent :

"Pour toutes ces raisons, nous considérons que, bien au-delà des

problèmes des Droits de l'Homme, les enjeux géostratégiques de la

question du Tibet sont de toute première importance. Ils concernent

l'équilibre d'une grande partie de l'Asie et, donc, la communauté

internationale.

Nous pensons, là aussi, que la France et l'Union européenne - dont elle

va bientôt assumer la présidence - disposent d'un rôle à jouer. Ce

pourrait être celui de proposer leur médiation dans l'instauration d'un

dialogue entre le Gouvernement tibétain en exil et les autorités

chinoises et indiennes.

Le fait de ne pas posséder d'intérêts directs ou historiques dans cette

région assurerait à une telle médiation une garantie plus grande aux

parties concernées.

Soutenir le Plan de paix en cinq points exposé par Sa Sainteté le Dalaï

Lama devant le Congrès américain en 1987, puis devant le Parlement

européen en 1988, serait également des plus pertinents.

La proposition du Dalaï Lama de conférer au Tibet un statut de "zone de

paix et de non-violence" (Ahimsa) rejoint tout à fait la préoccupation

d'instituer une zone tampon entre l'Inde et la Chine."

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7. Declaration d'Olivier Dupuis, secretaire du Parti Radical et

depute europeen

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TIBET: L'APPEL DU DALAI LAMA EN FAVEUR D'UN RENOUVEAU ET D'UN

RENFORCEMENT DE LA LUTTE POUR LA LIBERTE DU TIBET EST PLUS QUE BIENVENU.

ESPERONS QU'IL SERA ENTENDU PAR LES GOUVERNEMENTS OCCIDENTAUX ET PAR

LE GOUVERNEMENT TIBETAIN EN EXIL

Declaration d'Olivier Dupuis, secretaire du Parti Radical et depute

europeen

Bruxelles, le 21 fevrier 2000. Les declarations faites par le Dalai Lama

... l'occasion des festivites en l'honneur du soixantième anniversaire

de son intronisation, doivent être lues et comprises pour ce qu'elles

sont : une denonciation sans appel de la degradation continue de la

situation au Tibet et, consequemment, un appel en faveur d'une relance

urgente et forte de la lutte nonviolente de libération, seul moyen de

bloquer le processus de destruction mis en ouvre scientifiquement par le

regime communiste de Pekin.

Cet appel doit être entendu. Par les gouvernements occidentaux, ...

commencer par les paladins de la moralité internationale que se veulent

les gouvernements français, italien, allemand et belge. Des

gouvernements qui peuvent agir immédiatement en s'associant sans réserve

... l'initiative américaine ... la Commission des Droits de l'Homme des

Nations unies. Mais aussi par un gouvernement tibétain en exil qui doit

rompre de facon nette avec cette gestion bureaucratique qui a

malheureusement été la sienne au cours de ces dernières annees.

Parti Radical

Tel. +32-2-284.71.98

Fax. +32-2-284.91.98

www.radicalparty.org

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