On 18 February 2010, His Holiness the Dalai Lama will meet President Obama. We appeal to all Tibet supporters to participate in a big push to communicate a bold request to the US President.

Mr Obama's meeting with His Holiness comes hard on the heels of the ninth round of dialogue between the Dalai Lama's envoys and officials in China's United Front Work Department, and news of continued resistance in Tibet as hundreds demonstrate in Ngaba (see below). A breakthrough is needed; one that could be created if His Holiness was able to meet with China's President Hu Jintao. President Obama, a fellow Nobel Peace laureate and a leader who is looking for a fresh approach to problems, could be the person to facilitate a direct meeting between the Dalai Lama and Hu Jintao.

Although other governments have asked China's leaders to meet the Dalai Lama, no one leader has set out to make it happen. This, the first meeting of His Holiness with the most powerful leader in the free world since March 2008, comes at a critical moment for Tibet. Despite massive security, Tibetans in Tibet are still resisting and still demonstrating, as indicated by yesterday's protest in Ngaba, when monks from Kirti and Sey monasteries gathered with hundreds of laypeople and chanted prayers for those killed in 2008 and threw tsampa at the security guards that surrounded them. We do not yet know how (or if) the protest ended.

-> Tibetan New Year marked with protest in Tibet (phayul.com)

Please join in a mass fax-action to President Obama.

Sample message for President Obama;

Dear Mr President,

This message comes to you at Losar, the Tibetan New Year, with my sincere hope that your forthcoming meeting with His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be a landmark for the future of Tibet.

Specifically, I urge you to do everything in your power to bring about a meeting between His Holiness and China's President, Hu Jintao. After nine difficult rounds of talks between the Dalai Lama's envoys and China, a breakthrough is badly needed for progress to be made towards a negotiated resolution to China's occupation of Tibet.  A face-to-face meeting will undoubtedly reduce the mistrust that China bears for the Dalai Lama, a fellow Nobel peace laureate and one of the most respected global leaders of all time. Your desire for a fresh approach to long-standing injustices and your inspirational leadership abilities, mean that you are the person who can make this happen.

I appeal to you help broker a just and lasting resolution for the Tibetan people by working to facilitate a meeting between His Holiness the Dalai Lama and President Hu Jintao this coming year.

Here are five ways to send this message to President Obama: (There is no need to do them all!)

1. FAX a personal letter or message to +1 202-456-2461.
Since the White House only receives 1,000 faxes each day, compared to 3,500 phone calls and 100,000 emails each day, and 65,000 paper letters a week, the effort of finding a fax machine is worthwhile! A personalised version of the message above will have more impact than a standard message.

2. Fax or (urgently) post a standard letter (available from http://ihearttibet.org/?page_id=78)
Fax Number +1 202-456-2461
Address: The White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20500, United States of America.

3. Post a message on www.ihearttibet.org
There has alread been over 220 general messages to President Obama on http://ihearttibet.org/?page_id=78. A fax or letter based on the sample message above is preferable, but all the messages received on this site will be faxed to the White House before the meeting.

4. Complete the White House "Contact Us" form at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact
Subject: select "I have a policy comment"
Policy Comment: select "Foreign Affairs"
The sample message is well within the limit of 2,500 characters for this form.

5. Call the White House on + 1 202-456-1111

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Background to the meeting:

* This is the first meeting between the Dalai Lama and the US President since protests erupted across Tibet in March 2008. Protests have continued since that time. All US Presidents since 1990 have met the Dalai Lama.

* Presidential aides visited His Holiness in Dharamsala in September 2009 to confirm that a meeting between the two leaders would take place, but after Mr Obama had been to China. The aides explained "President Obama's wish for an enduring relationship with His Holiness and, additionally, for building a strong US-China relationship. In this way the United States would be in a better position to seek progress in the dialogue, improvements in human rights and other improvements in the lives of Tibetans." (ICT Press Release, quoting an aide of the Dalai Lama's.)

* The ninth round of dialogue between the Dalai Lama's envoys and officials from the United Front Work Department (UFWD) concluded on 31 January 2009. In a statement, Lodi Gyari concluded “we do not see any reason why we cannot find common ground on these issues.” His statement included a proposal for “a common effort to study the actual reality on the ground, in the spirit of seeking truth from facts [to] help both the sides to move beyond each others’ contentions” and an appeal to Beijing to stop mislabeling the Dalai Lama as a “separatist.” UFWD official Zhu Weiqun told a press conference in Beijing that "[The Dalai Lama] should make a thorough self-examination of his words and deeds and radically correct his political positions if he really expects results of contact and talks". He added that views were "sharply divided".

* President Obama raised Tibet with China's President Hu Jintao at the US China summit in November 2009; "the United States supports the early resumption of dialogue between the Chinese government and the representatives of the Dalai Lama to resolve any concerns and differences that the two sides may have." (Joint Statement).

* The 5th Work Forum on Tibet, which set future strategy for China's management of Tibet, concluded on 20 January 2009. There appear to be no major policy shifts but greater attention on rural development, and security issues linked to the fragile environment of the Tibetan plateau were emphasised. All Tibetan areas were included for the first time.

* In addition to discussions about the Dalai Lama's efforts to reach a negotiated settlement for Tibet through dialogue, and global issues of common concern, freedom of expression is likely to be on the agenda. It was raised by His Holiness with the Presidential aides last September, and is extremely topical, given Google's announcement that it is no longer willing to operate a censored search engine in China, and Secretary Clinton's announcement of US government resources for internet circumvention strategies.

* The Dalai Lama and President Obama are fellow Nobel Peace laureates (1989 and 2009 respectively).

* Examples of recent unrest in Tibet include a large demonstration in Ngaba, Amdo on Losar, 14 February 2010, when, despite massive security, hundreds of monks and laypeople are understood to have staged a "sit-in" at an intersection not far from Kirti monastery, throwing tsampa and offering prayers for those killed in 2008. http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=26618&article=Tibetan+New+Yea...
In December 2009, hundreds of Tibetans in the Lithang area ( Nyagchukha County) of Kham held demonstrations in support of a new trial for their imprisoned religious leader, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche. Their actions were connected to a remarkable petition that had collected up to 40,000 signatures, and which family members had attempted to deliver to Beijing. Up to 100 people were detained in Kham; some are believed to remain in detention. See http://www.savetibet.org/media-center/ict-news-reports/tibetans-defy-sec....

 

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