Geneva 1997

The citizens of Europe, Tibet and other countries, participating in the rally for the liberation of Tibet of 9 and 10 March 1997 in Geneva,

- considering that an essential stage for the future of humanity is presently enacted in Tibet, the survival of a people who struggle solely with nonviolent arms;

- considering that it is the duty of all citizens of the world to support this struggle which concerns all of humanity, in the name of the principle of universal responsibility and nonviolence,

urgently appeal to:

- the General Assembly of the United Nations

- its Secretary General

- its Security Council

- the members of the UN Commission on Human Rights

- the Heads of State and Government of the whole world

- to all the Parliamentary Assemblies of the world

- the representatives of the international economic world

to use all possible political and diplomatic means to open up negotiations as soon as possible for the peaceful settlement of the Tibetan question, under the auspices of the United Nations, between the government of the People's Republic of China and the Tibetan government in exile, as has been requested continuously by the Dalai Lama.

In addition, the participants call for:

1. an immediate halt to all human rights violations in Tibet and the release of all political prisoners in Tibet, notably Ngawang Choephel et Ngawang Sangdrol;

2. the guarantee of the right to freedom of religion and, in particular, the release of Gedhun Choeky Nyima, the young Panchen Lama, and his family;

3. an immediate halt to the population transfer of Chinese to Tibet and a start of the decolonisation process by returning land and properties to those Tibetans who have been expropriated during 40 years of Chinese occupation;

4. the UN Decolonisation Committee to urgently put the problem of the decolonisation of Tibet on its agenda (takes into consideration);

5. the liberation of all political prisoners in China, starting with the leader of the Wall of Democracy and 1996 Sakharov Price laureate Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan, one of the leaders of the Chinese student movement of 1989;

6. the closing down of all Chinese concentration camps, the notorious 'gulag', where 1000s of political prisoners are presently detained in terrible conditions;

7. governments from all over the world to take immediate action to put a halt to the import of products manufactured in the Chinese forced labour camps (gulag);

8. the European Union and the governments of the Member states to act in accordance with the resolutions that have so far been adopted by the European Parliament, as well as by the parliaments of Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The participants,

- express their support to the Tibetan and Chinese democratic movement, to all the victims of Chinese occupation in Tibet and the Chinese communist dictatorship;

- support the brave and ceaseless efforts of the Dalai Lama to restore the political, cultural and religious freedoms of his people in a nonviolent manner;

- appeal to the Chinese people and its rulers to commence a peace process based on dialogue and negotiations, which is the only way to end the Tibetan tragedy;

- appeal to all democratic governments to recognise their responsibility to effectively use all political means at their possible to defend fundamental human rights, the political, civil, religious and labour rights in Tibet, Eastern Turkestan, Inner Mongolia and all of China;

- appeal to the economic actors of the world to act upon their responsibility without delay and to use their capacity for political influence, so that investments and all commercial transactions are subordinated to the respect for human rights.

the Tibetan Community in Europe

the European Tibet Support Groups

the intergroup on Tibet in the European Parliament

the Transnational Radical Party