FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Karma Chophel, Namkha Tenzin

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October 26, 1995

TIBETAN HUNGER STRIKERS REJECT UN MEDICAL OFFICERS' PLEA STRIKE WILL END ONLY WHEN UN ACCEPTS DEMANDS

A senior medical officer of the United Nations, Dr. Ingrid Laux, visited the six Tibetans who are on a hunger strike at the United Nations, at noon today, and conveyed Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali's concern at their health. Dr. Laux, UN medical director, told the hunger strikers that she had been specifically sent by the Secretary-General to request them to end their fast.

However, the hunger strikers told Dr. Laux that although they were grateful for the concern expressed by the Secretary-General on the 13th day they requested her to convey to the Secretary-General the message that the strike would continue until their five-point demands were accepted. "The lives of six of us are nothing in comparison to what is happening to our brethren inside Tibet," Tenzin Jamyang, one of the hunger strikers, told Dr. Laux.