Kofi Annan - UNSG

Re: Meeting with a parliamentary delegation on Tibet

Brussels-New York, April 12, 1998

Dear Mr. Secretary General,

Let me at the outset express once again my most heartfelt gratitude for our friendly and meaningful meeting on December 1, 1997, in which European Commissioner Emma Bonino, President Robinson of Trinidad and Tobago, the Minister of Justice of Senegal Jacques Baudin, and some colleagues of the European Parliament delivered the international appeals of No Peace Without Justice and the Transnational Radical Party in support of the establishment of an International Criminal Court.

I am taking the liberty to write to you today to present another initiative of ours that we have undertaken since some months, a parliamentary appeal asking you "to receive, as soon as possible, the Dalai Lama, in order to define the likely steps for an initiative that allows the re-establishment in Tibet of the rights and international laws violated" and therefore supporting the opening of a dialogue between the Chinese authorities and the Tibetan Government in exile under the auspices of your Excellency.

The parliamentary petition, that I am pleased to enclose, has been endorsed by over 1,300 MPs from different countries, and we believe that it would be a very important message for all the peoples of the world to recognize and acknowledge that the United Nations takes into account and consideration the political support of the representatives of dozens of thousands of citizens from all over the globe. A support aimed at a peaceful approach to a complex dispute.

The international community and the international civil society have recently followed with great attention and widely appreciated your crucial role as negotiator in the Iraqi affair, and those who really believe in the UN system are day by day appreciating your efforts in reforming and strenghtening the organization and in securing a stable financial situation for it.

We are convinced that after your recent diplomatic successes, the international community should keep up the momentum and widen the spectrum of diplomatic solutions. A solution also requested by six members of the Tibetan Youth Council of New Delhi that several days ago started an hunger strike.

For all these reasons, I should like to ask your availability to arrange a public meeting with a delegation of the parliamentarians signatories of the appeal at the UN Headquarters at your earliest convenience.

I look forward to your reply. Best wishes.

Yours truly,

Oliver Dupuis

Secretary, MEP