By Associazione Italia-Tibet - Milan, 22 September 1995

Dear friends,

we think you all agree that the period we are living is crucial for the Tibetan people and civilization. Should it not be possible to invert the process of forced sinization of the Land of Snows, the end of this century will see the end of Tibet and its ancient culture.

The various Tibet support groups, all established sometime in the last decade, have all tried to do their best to contribute to the just struggle of the Tibetan people. But given the urgency at hand, we have to further increase our efforts and make our action more incisive. We think it is necessary to broaden the scope of action of single national support groups and create a Europe-wide possibly worldwide mass movement to support the Tibetan people.

As a first measure we propose to make the next March 10th Rally a big event shared by all European Tibet support groups: instead of organizing series of small rallies spread all over Europe, we should aim at bringing together a large group of Tibet supporters and Tibetans who live in Europe, for one large rally, for instance in Brussels. The rally could, for instance, start in front of the European Parliament and end outside the Chinese embassy. An event of this magnitude would certainly get greater media attention than many small ones and send a clear signal to the authorities of the People's Republic of China.

We already had the opportunity to mention this idea to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, as well as to various members of the Tibetan Government-in-exile, and it has met with great interest. We are also certain that this event will be actively supported by many members of the European Parliament, which, we should remember, has shown its endorsement of the struggle of the Tibetan people by approving last July 13 a motion very critical towards China.

Please let us know as soon as possible what you think of our proposal and if you support it. We would also appreciate any suggestions on how best to coordinate such an event.

Thanking you in advance we send you our best wishes.