Published by: World Tibet Network News, Saturday, July 6th 1996

TIBET ONLINE RESOURCE GATHERING LAUNCHES CENTRAL

WORLD WIDE WEB SITE FOR INTERNATIONAL TIBET MOVEMENT

Tibet O.R.G. provides current information on Tibet and Tibetan culture, tools and virtual community space for Tibet Support Groups.

Contact:

Daniel Haig

Tibet Online Resource Gathering

(510) 450-0846

SAN FRANCISCO (July 6, 1996) - The Tibet Online Resource Gathering announces the opening of its Web site and virtual community space for the Tibet support movement. The Gathering pools introductory and advanced articles and data about modern Tibetan culture, politics, news, and events, coordinates activism, and provides online and offline tools for Tibet Support Groups around the world.

The Web site, which focusses the international effort to halt China's genocide in illegally-occupied Tibet, is scheduled to launch on July 6th, the birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Thubten Samdup, co-editor of World Tibet Network News, President of the Canada Tibet Committee and former Member of Parliament to the Assembly of Tibetan People's Deputies, said, "I welcome the launch of Tibet O.R.G. on the 61st birthday of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. Designed in cooperation with Tibet Support Groups and concerned individuals, Tibet O.R.G. will become an indispensable tool for the Tibet activist in today's world of global electronic communication."

The Dalai Lama, secular and religious head of the nation, fled the Chinese military assault on his homeland of Tibet in 1959 along with 100,000 Tibetans, and has been directing the remarkable people's struggle for survival in exile while working tirelessly for the self-determination of Tibetansin their native country. In spite of the death of over 1 million Tibetans from Chinese abuse, he has never called for armed insurrection, but as the leader of a truly Buddhist nation calls for a peaceful understanding between China and the people of Tibet. The Dalai Lama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.

Tibet O.R.G.'s capacity to teach people who wish to learn about Tibet and provide resources for the activist community serves as a model for other activist groups' efforts to utilize the Internet. Established after the Tibet Conference of the Americas in Washington, D.C. in March of this year, a taskforce of Tibet Support Group leaders from four continents harnessed the diversity of the Tibet movement by developing and coordinating shared resources and establishing an efficient distribution of campaigns both regionally and internationally through the Internet. Extensive Web construction help at the site enables special interest groups to host their own content, while central site production is conducted via email networks. This allows free exchange among the whole community, facillitating efforts to promote the cause of Tibet among world leaders as well as local government bodies and business interests.

The Online Resource Gathering provides easy access to information on Tibetan culture while illuminating the tangled geopolitics that hold Tibet captive as surely as the guns of the Red Army. There has recently been much interest in the Tibet movement, for the sake of the Tibetans and for concern over China's economic and military policies. The U.S. Congress' extension of China's Most Favored Nation status was the immediate source of outrage that fueled the June Tibetan Freedom Concerts in San Francisco, which drew 100,000 people. The Tibet support community sees the current chaos in China as a sign that change is coming to Tibet, change they hope to foster by educating the world about the nature of the humanitarian and ecological disaster in Chinese-occupied Tibet.