THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE TIBET SUPPORT GROUPS

Berlin, 12-14 May 2000

Speech of Olivier Dupuis, secretary general of the Transnational Radical Party, member of the European Parliament

Dear friends, after three years of going our separate ways, I am particularly moved to be back with you today. I believe, as you do, that frankness is essential to true, profitable and constructive dialogue, so I will begin immediately by saying that I do not believe that the distance between you and the Transnational Radical Party is due to misunderstanding and incomprehension.

After three years of great shared commitment, of extremely important political successes - which there is no need for me to recall here - and of considerable growth in the world movement for freedom in Tibet as an organised movement, our paths separated in 1997 for strictly political reasons. I was and still am firmly convinced of this. In 1997, some people decided - in a perfectly legitimate manner - that the path of reserved negotiations with the Chinese authorities should have absolute precedence over any other political consideration, and consequently that the best way to pursue this path had to involve a "slowdown" or "cooling-down" of international mobilisation, especially the most visible and public part of such mobilisation.

Although I am convinced that it is clear, I feel I should point out that we have always shared, and continue to share, the strategic objective set by the Dalai Lama, and by the Tibetan government and parliament in exile, that is the full autonomy of Tibet within the context of the frontiers of China. In other words a Tibet with its own democratic institutions, fully responsible for all the issues that concern the life of its people, with the exception of international relations and security. Because like His Holiness we believe in the force and the value of interdependence. Because like His Holiness we do not believe in totems, not even in the totem of independence.

The difference in our opinions, now as then, regards something else. It regards the strategy for the fulfilment of this objective. We believe that, especially in the light of the nature of the adversary - an authoritarian and anti-democratic regime - any negotiation must be regulated by a framework of clear, certain rules in order to prevent the stronger interlocutor from having absolute discretionary power, without having to justify its choices. For this reason we believe that these negotiations must take place under the aegis of a third organism, an organism capable of ensuring the respect of the rules of the "dialogue" that the two parties are called on to hold. For this reason, and also due to the responsibilities assumed in the past by the United Nations with regard to Tibet, we believe that these negotiations must go ahead under the aegis of the Secretary General of the United Nations.

However, even more important, we were and are absolutely convinced that in order to make possible this dialogue, that is the opening of negotiations under the aegis of the United Nations and without any preconditions, and also in order to make them profitable, we must create a force such that our adversaries cannot elude it. And since our force is dialogue, our weapons can only be those of nonviolence. Not nonviolence as a philosophical approach, but nonviolence as a political instrument, as organised political expression, as Satyagraha, as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King taught us, and as the Dalai Lama and Marco Pannella continue to teach us.

I was and still am absolutely convinced that in 1996 and 1997, this force, this movement, this world Satyagraha could have been born, to some extent was already being born. With major difficulties as a result above all of the further authoritarian and nationalist drift of China, but also with some positive developments, beginning with the increasing awareness in India of the role imposed on the country by its status as the most populous democracy in the world; I am convinced that with hard work the conditions still exist for the birth or the rebirth of this world Satyagraha for Tibet.

Finally, there is the "time" element. With tragic consequences for Tibet itself, increasingly threatened by an unstoppable wave of Chinese colonisers, its identity and integrity increasingly harmed. I believe, therefore, that the time has come to make the question of time a central element of our strategy, for it is the only element that can force the Chinese authorities to initiate genuine dialogue, and force the authorities of the democratic countries to support it without hypocrisy, but with force and determination.

I am deeply convinced that at this point the world Satyagraha for the freedom of Tibet should now take place to urge the governments and parliaments of all the democratic countries of the world to commit themselves to recognising the independence of Tibet if, within three years of the notification of this decision, the Chinese authorities and the Tibetan government in exile have not agreed on and approved a satisfactory status of autonomy for Tibet.

We must organise our struggle immediately, all over the world, with new motions and resolutions in our parliaments, in the international institutions, in regional and municipal councils, with demonstrations in hundreds of cities on the same day, with fasts, hunger strikes and the many other nonviolent initiatives that our imagination will surely come up with.

Thank you.