Thomas Mann
BRUSSELS, Belgium, 8 September 2016
Ladies and Gentlemen, distinguished guests, venerable Holiness the Dalai Lama.
Dr Lobsang Sangay, Sikyong, Central Tibetan Administration; Kelsang Gyaltsen, Special Envoy of His Holiness; Jan Peumanns, Speaker of the Flemish Parliament.
Dear Matteo Mecacci, President of the International Campaign for Tibet; Henri Malosse, former President of the European Economic and Social Committee.
Dear colleagues and members of the Tibet Interest Group in the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the European Council.
Members of the Tibet Office Brussels, of ICT, Les Amis Du Tibet, Lights on Tibet and all the supporters of the Tibetan people. Dear Tibetans!
Today in the heart of Europe, we open the seventh international conference of the Tibet Support Groups. I am happy to recognise how many people are here to contribute to this event and to raise their voice for the Tibetans around the world.
The conference is one of the most effective platforms for support groups, NGOs, and parliamentarians to exchange views on human rights violations on the Tibetan plateau, to adjust global protection for persecuted Tibetans, and to coordinate international campaigns. It is also a good opportunity to send a strong signal towards the Chinese government.
It is a great honour that His Holiness the Dalai Lama is taking part in this conference. He will also visit Paris and Strasbourg next week.
People around the world including the European Union are inspired by His Holiness. He raises awareness for the Tibetan case with his unique aura and charisma, his remarkable messages, and his outstanding intellectuality. At the same time he is always very close to all human beings.
The Tibet Interest Group in the European Parliament raises awareness for Tibetan people, who are chased, suppressed, and suffering in their home country. Since 15 years I am privileged to be the leader of parliamentarians who support the Middle-Way approach.
- We believe in the document of utmost relevance: The Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for the Tibetan People.
- We still demand the nomination of a Special Representative on Tibetan affairs as member of the European External Action Service.
- For our regular monthly meetings we invite high-ranking experts from all over the world: former Tibetan prisoners, monks, nuns, scientists, journalists. They all inform us about the political situation, the deficits of human rights, and unacceptable living conditions.
Some of our highlights
- In March 2013
- Our guests were Kirti Rinpoche from the Kirti monastry in Tibet, and high-ranking members of the Tibetan exile-parliament.
- In June 2013
- A conference on the Tibetan environmental issue took place in Brussels. The topic was “Denuding, Degrading and Depopulating” of the Tibetan plateau. It has a big impact on the world climate with one of the largest glacier landscapes worldwide and the sources of the six biggest Asian rivers.
- Another conference on this topic was organised in November 2015 under the title: ‘Environmental Degradation on the Third Pole’.
- In October 2014
- We welcomed Lobsang Sangay for the one-hundred-first Tibet Intergroup meeting.
- In June 2015
- the Dalai Lama celebrated his 80th birthday. With Csaba Sogor we organised an exhibition in the European Parliament, one week in Brussels as well as one week in Strasbourg. We called it “Ways of Wisdom” in reference to the path of His Holiness. More than 350 visitors joined the event.
- For three days a Buddhist-sand-mandala was drawn by a Tibetan monk. It had the size of one square meter.
- In December 2015
- The European Parliament passed an initiative report on the relationship between the EU and China. We succeded in integrating several important chapters:
- The status of the Tibetan Autonomous Region (Middle-Way-Approach).
- The re-establishment of the dialogue between China and the Tibetan Parliament-in-exile.
- Environmental damages and resource exploitation.
- The suppression of Buddhist religion and the ban of the portrait of the Dalai Lama.
- The Chinese terrorist laws, which legalise violations of rights by government forces against so-called ‘potential’ terrorists and declares self-immolations as acts of terrorism.
- Travel restrictions for EU citizens to visit Tibet.
- In March 2016
- Like every year, we celebrated the anniversary of the Tibetan Uprising Day. We, as members of the European Parliament, participated in a demonstration and a march from the European Commission to the Chinese embassy in Brussels. It was a strong signal of European solidarity.
- In March 2016
- I was a member of an international election observing mission to Dharamshala. Together with parliamentarians from the US, Canada, Australia, France and the United Kingdom, as well as the ICT chair, Matteo Mecacci, I spent one week in the political capital of the Tibetans.
- I want to express my gratitude to everyone who took part in this political process and who made it possible that Tibetans all over the world had the opportunity to vote for their representatives. The Tibetans hold their elections democratically, professionally, and with great passion. We visited schools, contacted local NGOs, and had several talks with women and youth organisations and human rights activists.
- A personal highlight was the private audience of our team with His Holiness.
- In April 2016
- We raise awareness for the case of the missing Panchen Lama. He has been kidnapped since more than twenty years. For his twenty-seventh birthday we published press statements and videos, adressing the Chinese government and demanding his release.
- In July 2016
- We appealed to the European Commission, the European Council, and the Presidency of the European Parliament to emphasise the importance of the Tibetan issue during the talks with Chinese authorities. We received positive reactions by the High Representative Mme Mogherini and were assured that the heads of the European institutions frequently mention Tibet towards the Chinese.
To summarise
The Tibetans are frequently supported by the European Union and the European Parliament!
Even against resistance we do not leave Tibet alone, your culture, your language, religion and identity.
So today we stand again shoulder to shoulder with our Tibetan friends.
Tashi delek!
About the author
Thomas Mann is the President of Tibet Interest Group, European Union.
The Chinese leadership have not shown their true wisdom and farsightedness by positively responding to the Middle path policy of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. China would continue to face more protest and demonstrations if they fail to win the hearts and minds of people they think of as an integral part of great motherland.
The past repressive Chinese policy has totally failed in Tibet till date. Already similar dissatisfaction and suspicion are seen in the street of Hongkong and Taiwan. Give genuine respect and equality to all ethnic minorities, President Xi doesn’t have to use guns and bombs.
We’re demanding autonomy in the true sense of the word, not semi-autonomy or adulterated autonomy.
It’s important that China seriously look into our plea which is just and reasonable. We’re not seeking separation, especially now that China is on the verge of being a superpower. We want to be an autonomous region in the true sense of the word definition, meaning.
Because of your rapid rise as a result of accomplishing many things unprecedented in world history, you’re now expected by the international community to hold to higher standards of integrity and credibility. Today in the age of the Internet and instantaneous mode of communications you’re subject to intense scrutiny by the global community, especially by the folks in Hong Kong and Taiwan for whom your treatment of Tibet Autonomous Region is the litmus test politically. The ball is in your court.