OTTAWA, March 11, 1997 - Our March 10 event began at noon on Parliament Hill with a welcome by Mr. Jurme Wangda (President of the Ottawa Branch of the Canada Tibet Committee) who discussed the reasons for demonstrating on this date of the Tibetan uprising and told his personal story of flight and of his family's hardship in Tibet.

Thubten Samdup (national president of the Canada Tibet Committee) offered opening remarks and read the March 10 message from His Holiness the Dalai Lama of Tibet with translation into both English and French. Mr. Samdup offered his thanks and that of the C.T.C. for the participation of private individuals, of the Canada Tibet Committee members, members of Amnesty International, the Ontario Public Interest Research Group: Burma / Tibet group, and the Unitarian Foundation.

Professor Brian Given (research consultant to C.T.C.) discussed human rights issues in Tibet, some stories of prisoners of conscience and described the successful settlment of Tibetans in other countries of refuge. "If they can accomplish this much as refugees, imagine what Tibetans could accomplish if they controlled their own country?" he suggested.

As promised, we performed "Five Criminal Acts" which, while quite legal in Canada, could have resulted in imprisonment, torture and possible execution in Chinese-occupied Tibet as follows:

1. We were demonstrating for human rights

2. We handed out information and pictures of the Panchen Lama

3. We read out the names of political prisoners

4. We offered kata to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama

5. We sang the Tibetan national anthem

Two thrones, with offering tables had been constructed on Parliament Hill by Thupten Ngodup Champa (President of the Tibetan Cultiural Association of Montreal) and Jurme Wangda (President of the Ottawa branch of the C.T.C.) conducted a Long Life Puja for the Dalai Lama and the Panchen Lama, including the traditional offering of kata (offering scarves) by more than 70 people.

While everyone sang the Tibetan national anthem, volunteers handed out 1200 ribbons in the colours of the Tibetan flag. Each ribbon represented 1,000 Tibetan people who have died as the direct result of China's occupation of Tibet. We then carried the ribbons with us as we marched from Parliament Hill to the Chinese Embassy. The police would not allow us to approach the embassy en masse, so we then handed our ribbons to six delegates who were permitted to cross the road. To the accompanyment of traditional Tibetan trumpets and a drum, the demonstrators chanted their support for Tibetan freedom and human rights while they tied the ribbons to the barricade in front of the embassy.