Brussels, 3 February 1997

Dear Mayor,

We are very happy to receive your support for the "Flag for Tibet Campaign 1997" and hereby send you the Tibetan flag. At the time of writing this letter, more than 150 mayors from France, Spain, Italy, Belgium, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia and Luxembourg joined our campaign. They will express their solidarity with the Tibetan people in a visible and concrete manner on March 9 and 10. Since we received most of the adhesions during the last week, we remain hopeful to reach a total of 1.000 municipalities this year.

As part of the same "freedom for Tibet - democracy for China" campaign, we received more than 1.000 signatures from parliamentarians and university professors from around the world, in favour of the candidature of Wei Jingsheng for the 1997 Nobel Peace Price. As you probably know already, Wei Jingsheng who was imprisoned from 1979 to 1993 for his writing and actions for democratisation in China was once more condemned in 1995, to a new prison sentence of 15 years. This time for writing a letter to Deng Xiaoping in which he expressed his view on the necessity of the opening of negotiations, without preconditions, between the Chinese authorities and the Dalai Lama.

To further reinforce this campaign, the City Council of Turin has approved a motion of support for the candidature of Wei for the Nobel Peace Price. Other European municipalities are in the process of taking similar actions. A motion from your municipality would be of particular importance.

Please find enclosed the text approved by the City Council of Turin, as well as the telephone and fax numbers of the Nobel Committee in Oslo. If you agree to join the Turin City Council in this initiative, please do not hesitate to use these numbers to directly send your text to Oslo (in this case, we would very much appreciate it if you could send us copy for our track record).

We would like to thank you once more for your support. In addition, we cordially invite you to participate in the Second European Rally for the Freedom of Tibet which will take place on March 9 and 10 in Geneva,

Yours sincerely,

enclosed:

- Fax +47-22-43.01.68 and telephone number +47-22-44.36.80 of the Nobel Committee in Oslo;

- The text of the motion "Wei Jingsheng", Nobel Price" approved by the City Council of Turin.