Published by: World Tibet Network News, 96/06/04 23:00 GMT

Submitted by Kunzang Yuthok, TRC

ISTANBUL, June 2, 1996: Today is the opening day of the official intergovernmental Conference. There were many dignitaries but none of us was able to attend the Opening Ceremonies.

The All China Women's Federation has a booth set up with pictures of Lhasa in it. We will all go together to the booth. Some have said that there is a sign titled "China's Tibet". The China Delegation seems quite large and there appears to be Tibetans in it. They have been coming to our booth taking literature and pictures. Unfortunately, the TWA has not arrived as of yet and we have only modest decorations up.

We also have a uniformed guard just a few booths away from us. We don't know if he is there to protect us or to watch us or to protect the China Delegates who come to our booth. When they arrived today at our booth, he was around in front of our booth the whole 10 - 15 minutes. We need to investigate if this security is for our protection or to watch us.

MIGRANTS FORUM: Losang Rabgay and Tseten Norbu went to the War Migrants Forum. We were also invited along with the Palestinians to a dialogue with the Kurds. This meeting was off site since the local Turkish human rights advocates are boycotting the UN Conference and NGO Forum. This was coordinated by the Green Party of Europe.

ORGANIZATIONAL: Tonight we have a meeting of the whole Tibet delegation at 10 pm. Our agenda is to divide our work and coordinate activities.

DOCUMENT: Things are going fine on all fronts. We now have all the documents we need for the Habitat Agenda discussions. This afternoon, the Conference met in the two committee bodies. Committee 1 will deal with the Habitat Agenda and Committee 2 will deal with the Istanbul Document.