Mr. Kofi Annan

United Nations Secretary-General

UN Headquarters

New York, NY 10017

Re: Meeting with a parliamentary delegation on Tibet

Brussels-New York, April 16, 1998

Dear Mr. Secretary-General,

Let me at the outset express 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, some colleagues of the European Parliament and myself 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 an initiative launched by the Transnational Radical Party some months ago. It is a parliamentary appeal that calls on your Excellency "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 law violated" and therefore supporting the opening of a dialogue between the Chinese authorities and the Tibetan Government in exile under the auspices of the UNSG.

I deeply appreciated your recent statement on the six members of the Tibetan Youth Council of New Delhi that are fasting since the month of March, the first statement regarding the Tibetan issue coming from a Secretary-General of the UN. As many other people around the world, I am convinced that a further interlocutory sign coming from your part, could help triggering a season of negotiations between the authorities of the People's Republic of China and H.H. the Dalai Lama. I am also convinced that after your recent diplomatic successes, the international community should keep up the momentum and widen the spectrum of diplomatic solutions.

The world has 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 strengthening the organization and in securing a stable financial situation for it.

The parliamentary petition, that I am pleased to enclose with the list of signatories, 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 is willing to take 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.

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

I look forward to your reply. Best wishes.

Yours truly,

Olivier Dupuis

Secretary, MEP