SEPT. 29 - OCTOBER 2: NON-VIOLENCE, DIALOGUE, FREEDOM FOR TIBET, DEMOCRACY FOR CHINA. FASTING DIALOGUE FOR THE LIBERTY OF THE PANCHEM LAMA AND DISSIDENT WEI JINGSHENG. AS OF TODAY, OVER 350 PARTICIPANTS FROM TWENTY NATIONS.

Brussels, Sept 24th 1996. With the support of numerous Tibet Support Groups and other political, cultural, and religious organizations, the Transnational Radical Party has promoted, within the limits of the preparatory campaign for "Satyagraha 1998" (international campaign for the liberation of Tibet) a fasting dialogue of three days dedicated to the release of the Panchem Lama, second highest religious authority of Tibetan Buddhism, and of the Chinese political dissident Wei Jingsheng.

From noon on September 29th to noon of October 2nd (anniversary of the birth of Mahatma Ghandi), hundreds of people will fast for the opening of a non-violent dialogue so that their respective Ministers of Foreign Affairs will do all that is possible for the release of the Panchem Lama and of Wei.

Gedhun Choekyi Nyima is a boy of seven years who was recognized this past May by the Dalai Lama as the eleventh reincarnation of the Panchem Lama. In actuality, however, he is sequestered in Peking by Chinese authorities. He is the youngest political prisoner in the world.

Wei Jingsheng, leader of the "Wall of Democracy" movement is one of the most prominent dissidents of the regime of Peking. He is serving, in grave health conditions, a new prison penalty of fifteen years for "subversive activity." An international campaign for his nomination to the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 is currently underway.

Over 350 people have registered as participants of the fasting dialogue. On October 2nd they will request the ministers of twenty nation in which they live the following two demands: that the respective ambassadors in Peking be allowed to meet with Wei Jingsheng where he is imprisoned in the prison of Tangshan, among other things, to observe the condition of his health, and that a message be sent to the ambassador of the people's Republic of China requesting the return of Gedhun Choekyi Nyma to his Tashi Lumpo monastery in Tibet.

The participants of the days of fasting are: Carla ROCCHI, Italian Undersecretary of State, the deputies Tereza GANZA-ARAS and Stjepan RODE (Croatia), Flavio RODEGHIERO e Fabio CALZAVARA (Italy), Dimitru CALANCE (Romania), Suzana DEWA (President of Amnesty International- Slovenian chapter), president of Italia-Tibet Piero VERNI, rector of the Academy of Tirana Giorgio ZHEJI, Thomas NAGENT and Patrick NATON (president and secretary of "Amis du Tibet", Belgium), writer and president of CSPT of Ginevra Claude LEVENSON, president of "Eco-Tibet" Francoise Bonzon, Robert TRAER of the "International Association for Religious Freedom" of Oxford, Tibor HENDREI (president of "Tibetet Segito Tarsasag of Budapest), president of "France -Tibet" Marcelle ROUX, Jordhen CHATZOTSANG (president of Canada-Tibet Committee), Daniel HODEL, President of the "Tibetan Rights Campaign" (USA), Tsering YANGDON

of the "Tibetan Woman's Organization", and Konstantin ADZHAROV, president of the Christian Republican Party of Bulgaria.

Transnational Radical Party