Date: Sun, 19 Jan 1997 21:21:12 -0500

From: Rangzen@AOL.COM

To: Multiple recipients of list TSG-L

Why March for Tibet's Independence?

Speech by Thubten Jigme Norbu

The Learning Alliance

New York, New York

January 18, 1997

Friends, I am very happy to know that you are willing to contribute time & energy to the event that we have gathered to discuss. Before I say anything else, I deeply thank you for your display of support & interest in what we will be doing.

As most of you know, we will walk from Toronto to New York City beginning on March 10th. This will not be the first time that some of us have walked to demonstrate our support & commitment for Tibet's independence. Some of you were with us two years ago when we organized a walk from Bloomington to Indianapolis. Some of you also joined us last year when we walked from Washington, D.C. to New York City. Our walk this year involves much more time, effort, energy, & organization than any of the previous ones. It means crossing an international border & walking at times in extremely cold weather, at least at the beginning, when we leave Toronto. Why are we going to cross an international border? Most importantly, because Tibetans in Tibet have no freedom to engage in such a simple activity. And second, we hope that crossing the Canadian-United States border will generate even greater publicity than we obtained on our previous marches.

Obviously, we will need quite a bit of support & help with this year's walk. Concerning this, I would like to say something about the level of commitment that you must bring to our walk. Since this year's walk will be longer than previous ones, it will require a great deal of stamina from those of you who intend to walk all or most of the distance. I will be walking the entire distance. At this time, three Tibetans from Toronto & Venerable Bhante (a 108 year old Cambodian Monk) are committed to walking with me. I am very honored & grateful to have the privilege of sharing time with you Bhante. I look forward to walking with you.

I must say that previous walks left me feeling stronger & more invigorated than when I began. But there are a number of reasons that may prevent many of you from walking all 600 miles. Here I mean not only the distance involved, but also the amount of time it will take to complete our walk. This year we will walk for a little more than three months, finishing at the United Nations on June 14th. Of course, I realize that many people have work and family obligations to consider, & therefore, cannot walk all three months. However, I want to encourage each of you to walk for as long as you possibly can. Last year, many of you from New York City walked with us on the weekends. This was a great inspiration for me & the rest of the walkers. In fact, I am not able to fully describe how happy this made me feel to share the roads of the rural North Atlantic highways with my Tibetan friends & Western supporters. Thank you.

I also want to encourage each of you who cannot go the entire distance to consider supporting us in other ways you feel comfortable. We need funding for our walk as well as food & places to stay along our route. Don't be fooled by my age which I think is 75 years old. I am still a simple nomad Tibetan who can sleep on the floor using my shoe as a pillow.

Why are we walking? We are walking most importantly for the independence of Tibet. Unfortunately, the independence of Tibet has been obscured lately, as various proposals have been made that would try to end the Tibetan Question by leaving Tibet as a part of China. I have spoken out very often about this position. Time & again I have stated that anything short of independence will leave Tibet forever at the mercy of China. Without independence, Tibet will remain an internal affair of China. Any agreement that Tibet reaches with China that does not recognize Tibet as a member of the international community, which is to say, an independent country, will be easily made null & void by China when the time is convenient. This is why many of us say, anything can be discussed with China, except for independence, which is the bottom-line condition for any agreement between Tibet & China. All of the conditions that have been suggested for a settlement between Tibet & China, such as China taking initial responsibility

for Tibet's defense & foreign policies can certainly be the basis for discussions, so long as the right of the Tibetan people to an independent country is incorporated into the ultimate agreement.

Why do I & other Tibetans insist on this point? It is not because we think we know what's best, no matter what the majority of Tibetans think. It is because independence is the clear wish & desire of almost all Tibetans, especially Tibetans in Tibet. We who live outside Tibet can do no less than to work to see that our brothers & sisters in Tibet realize their wish & desire to be free of China's tyranny. Many of us living outside Tibet have suffered terribly as a result of China's occupation of our country. But Tibetans living inside Tibet are still suffering even more & we cannot fully understand what it is like for them. We must accept that they are the ultimate judge of what the future of Tibet should be. When we call for Tibet's independence, we are simply respecting the will & the wishes of the people who are suffering the most under China's oppression; Tibetans in Tibet. We will walk for them & especially the youngest political prisoner in the world, 7-year old Gendhun Choekyi Nyima. His Holiness The

Panchen Rinpoche must be released & allowed to live freely & safely in the Tibetan community.

I ask that all of you who are willing to support us be very clear about why we are walking. We are not talking about vague ideas of freedom, although of course we want Tibet to be free. But freedom & independence are two different things. Freedom under China would exist only on paper. Moreover, anything given by China to a Tibet that still remained in China's control could just as easily be taken away. As I said before, we must have independence. Tibetans in Tibet understand this very clearly. Some Tibetan exiles glibly throw the term freedom around, as they try to obscure the fact that they are willing to accept a solution that would leave Tibet as a part of China. Only rarely do they admit that what they really want is that empty piece of imaginative deception, known as autonomy. So they use the vague term freedom instead. Well, we are here to say that we want no more & no less than what Tibetans in Tibet want: independence. Of course we want freedom, but true freedom is independence. And, independence is

absolutely necessary. Without independence, there is no freedom. Without independence, there is no Free Tibet. I want to ask those of you, students & others, who say that you are for a Free Tibet, to make this explicit in what you write, say, & do. A Free Tibet is an independent Tibet. That is why we mince no words & call our walk a "March for Tibet's Independence."

In closing, I encourage all of us to join together, so that we can mutually support each other in this challenging endeavor. We need walkers, people who are willing to walk all or part of the distance. We need individuals to help organize overnight stays for the group of walkers. We need food & a great deal of money to cover all the expenses for this project. We also need people who can work with the press & help to publicize not only what we are doing, but more importantly, why. I ask that you join us in this effort in any way you can. Bod-rang-btsan!