III° EUROPEAN SEMINAR ON TIBET
FULL AUTONOMY FOR TIBET WITHIN THREE YEARS OR INTERNATIONAL RECOGNITION OF THE TIBETAN GOVERNMENT IN EXILE

European Parliament, Brussels, 7-8 December 2000

Intervention of Mrs Yuthok, representative of His Holiness, The Dalaï Lama, in Paris

Thank you Olivier. As you might remember in the beginning when I spook I kept my comis very brief because as I said we, my colleague Chhime from Budapest, and myself, are here to listen to your ideas, your experiences and your thoughts on behalf of Tibet. Because many of you have experiences and with over 200 people here, who have been here for two days sharing your successes, failures, your future thoughts, ideas. I think we can call this meeting a very successful meeting of sharing of ideas, making of contacts and also successful in the way that you will come out with a document that puts forward a future plan, an action plan of what you are going to achieve. Because we have been to many meetings and to some peoples this issues are coming up again and again, the same old campaigns.

However, I think we should learn from our experiences, because times are changing. What worked five years, ten years ago might not work now. Or what worked ten years ago, we can improve it, or do it better, or suggest it better to new groups. Like we heard from the groups from Eastern Europe that they are at a different level. So you, who are in Western Europe, have the experience to share, so they don't have to go through the same mistake. And also what did not work or would not have worked five years ago, might work now. Because things are changing, the whole world is changing, concepts, ideas, laws are changing, because of people like you who are here today, because of politicians who are here, who have spoken here today, to make things change. Because we want a better world. Not only for ourselves, but for future generations. On all different levels, not only on Tibet. And I'm very pleased that we were able to talk about Tibet in the context of the international community, talk about other people's sufferings also. We are not an isolated country or issue or people. We are a global community, as His Holiness says, we have a universal responsibility. So I would also like to thank the moderators for being patient and also for allowing peoples to express their ideas and thoughts. It's a tough, tough job to moderate, to manage 200 people. So I think they deserve an applause.

What I would like to do is making a few points before we all leave here. His Holiness's position about China has never been to isolate China but to include China in the world community. We include China in the world community not on China's own standards or on what ever China wants, China gets. But as a responsible citizen of the world community. So if China wants to enter into the world community, China must respect the international standards and norms established and that are applicable to other countries that are also represented here.

That brings me to the point of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in March: the issue of Tibet should be raised on the table there. China should not be able to get away because we are having critical human rights dialogue. Countries are saying that. That is not acceptable. Have the dialogue, we need that. However: address the issue of the human rights at the correct forum. As Lorn has mentioned through the international Tibet Support Network on this issue, please join the coordinated action to bring this about.

Another point here that was discussed, about whether autonomy or independence. What is it that we should be pushing for. My colleague, Chhime Choekyapa, did mention that we need to be very, very clear on this matter, because this is a point that the Chinese government use to say: His Holiness can not be believed, the Tibetan government has a hidden agenda, that this is a one step-two step policy. It is not so. His Holiness the Dalai Lama has been very clear, Tibetan government in exile has been very clear, and so has the Tibetan Parliament about our goal: it is genuine autonomy, as it is past in the resolution of July the 6th here at the European Parliament. So there is no confusion on our part and I don't think there is any confusion on the part of the parliamentarians here. They are very clear on that. So the past resolution supports us in that way. As you also know, member from India of our Parliament explained to you about the changes of the democratic process in our community in exile. Yes, we do know, and we do have Tibetans who said we want independence. But that is an individual or organisation wish or goal. It is not the goal of the Tibetan government in exile or His Holiness's goal. Tibetan people have the right to self-determination. However looking at the current situation in Tibet and the world, genuine autonomy is what we are looking for.

Interpretation about the July 6th Resolution, whether it is something that Tibetans want or not: the president of the Tibetan Intergroup was very clear when he received a letter from His Holiness expressing His pleasure in the passing of this Resolution. The Tibetan government in exile said: we welcome this resolution wholeheartedly. Because it is a mean to put pressure on the Chinese government to begin dialogue to initiate a peaceful resolution of the situation of Tibet.

Time is running out. We need to be together to break new ground on Tibet. We hope that all of you will go, keeping this goal in mind, passing in all your different communities and different parliaments in your countries.

Thank you.