Young netizens to rally for Dalai Lama's visit

Seoul, 24th April: Young netizens supporting a visit to Korea by the

Dalai Lama will take to the streets Saturday [29th April] for their

first off-line meeting to urge the government to allow the visit.

"We launched an on-line organization at freetibet.or.kr in February when

the Dalai Lama's Seoul visit emerged as an issue, and this is the first

time that we will meet off-line," said Choe Yun-chong, spokeswoman of

"Save Tibet", a cyber organization with 1,000 members.

The organization and nine other on-line groups will launch a street

campaign in front of Daihan Investment and Finance Corp in downtown

Seoul to foster an atmosphere for the visit, citing the "lack of the

social atmosphere here for the Dalai Lama's visit to South Korea".

"The campaign aims to urge the government to reconsider its decision not

to allow the visit to Seoul by the Dalai Lama in view of diplomatic

problems with China," she said.

The campaign Saturday afternoon will also feature a declaration of a

statement to call for the Dalai Lama's visit, distribution of materials

on human rights of Tibetans and activities of the Dalai Lama and sale of

books, buttons and other souvenirs on Tibet and himself.

Other organizations supporting the movement include "Inthemorning",

"Stream of free Tibet", Buddhist student groups at Dongguk University,

Chogye Temple and the Korea Federation of Buddhist student unions.

Secretary-General Chong Wung-ki of the commission for the Dalai Lama's

visit, which represents 73 Buddhist organizations, said the commission

will also dispatch its delegation to the street campaign to assist the

campaign by young netizens.

Buoyed by the recent movements by young students and media coverage of

the Dalai Lama's visit, Chong said the commission will soon take

measures to expedite the schedules for joining hands with other

religious and nongovernmental organizations (NGO) and take up the issue

at the Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) NGO forum.

The commission will also launch a signature-collecting campaign near

Chogye Temple in Seoul and other major temples across the nation from

7th May on the occasion of Buddha's birthday 11th May.