Dear TSGs,
The Canada Tibet Committee is inviting members of Tibet Support Groups to join us in organizing towards non-governmental events parallel to the annual APEC leaders' meeting which will take place in Vancouver in late November. Many of you will remember Tibet's strong presence in Seattle when President Clinton convened the first such meeting in 1993. Since then, NGO activity around APEC has grown and consolidated and now comprises a large alliance of Asian and North American labour, human rights, environmental and social justice groups.
Both Jiang Zemin and Li Peng will be in Vancouver for the events, as will the leaders of all APEC members including Clinton, Suharto, Mahatir etc. The Government of Canada is spending millions on preparations for the event.
APEC stands for Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation. APEC is a loosely formed body of 18 Pacific rim "economies" with little infrastructure but lots of implications. Its mandate is to promote trade liberalization in the region. APEC is the only international body on which both the PRC and Taiwan sit at the same table.
Unfortunately, unregulated trade has had a negative impact on a variety of social indicators including labour rights, human rights and the environment.
Neither has free trade contributed, as Tibetans know well, to an improvement in rights or democracy. Nevertheless the governments of APEC continue to negotiate fast-track liberalization without addressing its social dimension, and they are doing it in growing collaboration with large transnational corporations who are un-accountable to citizens.
In the case of Tibet, trade liberalization is accelerating the integration of
Tibet's economy into the Chinese economy, contributing to the population transfer and facilitating the exploitation of Tibet's natural resources. The Tibetan people are powerless to intervene.
There now exists a tradition of parallel events hosted by NGOs each November when APEC leaders meet. Last year, in the Philippines, two young Tibetans played an active role in those events. They learned that there is virtually no awareness about Tibet among Asian NGOs even though strong networks in support of Burma and East Timor exist. The strongest recommendation of the Tibetan delegates was that TSGs prioritize building relationships with Asian NGOs, partly by continuing to play a strong role in the APEC parallel events.
APEC events also offer us an opportunity to protest our own governments' growing commercial ties with China, which are having increasing influence in other international fora such as the UN Commission on Human Rights.
This year a large multi-sectoral coalition of Canadian NGOs will be hosting the People's Summit on APEC. The Summit will take place in Vancouver from November 19 to 24. A second message will be sent to this list, with the details of the Peoples Summit.
The Canada Tibet Committee invites any TSG in an APEC country to join us in
preparations for this event. We want to show a strong Tibetan presence.
Possible ways in which Tibetans could take part include:
Demonstrations (Jiang Zemin and Li Peng will both be there)
Workshops (on our boycotts, selective purchasing, etc.)
Participation in conference events (environment, women, indigenous, TNC's, labour, youth, interfaith)
Displays and booths
Cultural presentations
The Vancouver branch of the CTC will be coordinating Tibetan participation at the Peoples Summit. A separate email discussion list has been convened and it is open to anyone interested in joining this initiative. We will also be posting updates to the TSG list. We hope that all of you will send delegates to Vancouver so that we can have enough numbers to have an impact.
If your organization would like more information about APEC or relevant NGO
coalitions in your country, please write to Carole Samdup (CTC Montreal) at
. For all other information about planning and events inNovember, contact Deke Samchok (CTC Vancouver) at . We look forward to hearing from you,Carole Samdup
Canada Tibet Committee - Montreal
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APEC MEMBERS: Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, United States
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