World Tibet Network News Tuesday, April 21, 1998

Dear Mister Annan:

I understand that you as Secretary General of the United Nations may not be, at the present time, in a position to open the debate on the Tibetan issue. However, time is running out, for the six Tibetans who have been fasting for forty days now, for the six million Tibetans who have spent nearly forty years under unwanted Chinese rule, and for all of us who just by sharing the planet with them are part of the picture.

We as humankind are really going to prove that unless there is physical violence exploding somewhere on this planet we won't intervene? Are we going to say that there is nothing we can do because the rules at the UN are set in such a way that nothing can be done?

Life is precious, Mr. Annan. Yours as well as that of all other living creatures. I would like to appeal to your sense of responsibility and creativity at this time. Perhaps there is something you can do. Something that only you at this time, in your position, can do. Please consider intervening in a way that can give us all hope. Help all the people in the world who want to prove that change is possible without resorting to violence to make their dream, their commitment to freedom and justice come true.

Please help us all to help the Tibetan cause. It's not "their" cause - its ours.

Yours sincerely,

Daniela Boccassini

Associate Professor

Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies

University of British Columbia

1873 East Mall

Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z1

Canada

tel: (604) 822-4006

fax: (604) 222-4150