72 US Lawmakers Urge President Obama to Make Tibet a Priority in Final Months in Office/ENG

2016. augusztus 19./CTA/TibetPress

eredeti cikk



WASHINGTON DC: Seventy-Two US lawmakers led by veteran Tibet supporter Congressman Jim McGovern have written a letter to US President Barack Obama to prioritise the issue of Tibet during his last months in office. Full text of the letter.

“We write to ask that you redouble efforts in support of the Tibetan people during your remaining months in office. We believe it is critically important to move beyond words to actions,” McGovern and House lawmakers wrote in the letter to President Obama.

“The Tibetan people view the United States as their friend. It is time to honor that friendship with new, creative strategies to encourage meaningful dialogue, protect Tibetan rights, and preserve their unique cultural, religious and linguistic identity,”they wrote.

In the letter released on Thursday, 17 August, they have particularly urged President Obama to emphasise six issues with regard to Tibet, including publicly supporting the right of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to return to Tibet and the immediate and unconditional release of all Tibetan political prisoners languishing in Chinese prisons.

Other issues include urging U.S. government officials to invite His Holiness the Dalai Lama to every event, on every occasion, where his knowledge and decades of reflections would be helpful for addressing the world’s problems; facilitating the involvement of His Holiness the Dalai Lama or his representatives in the global debate on climate change and its potential consequences given Tibet’s fragile environment; the establishment of a U.S. consular office in Lhasa, Tibet to help the U.S. observe and address the obstacles to freedom of movement that affect both Tibetans within China, and U.S. citizens.

The letter also raised the enforcement of the norms of reciprocity to ensure that senior Chinese officials responsible for restricting the access of U.S. officials, journalists, Tibetan-Americans and other citizens to Tibetan areas of China are themselves restricted in their travel when they are in the United States.

Congressman Jim McGovern has been a leading voice in Congress pushing for the United States to do more to support reforms that would strengthen human rights in Tibet. In November 2015, Congressman McGovern joined House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi and other lawmakers on a trip to China and Tibet to urge Chinese leaders to enact reforms to increase the freedom and autonomy of the Tibetan people.

Joining Congressman McGovern on the letter to President Obama were Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY), Ranking Member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Nita Lowey (D-NY), Ranking Member on the House Appropriations Committee, as well as Representatives Betty McCollum (D-MN), Alan Lowenthal (D-CA), Ted Lieu (D-CA), Joyce Beatty (D-OH), Tim Walz (D-MN), Jim McDermott (D-WA), Michael Capuano (D-MA), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ), Richard Neal (D-MA), Joe Courtney (D-CT), David Cicilline (D-RI), Peter Welch (D-VT), Mike Thompson (D-CA), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), Barbara Lee (D-CA), Lloyd Doggett (D-TX), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Dan Kildee (D-MI), Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), John Garamendi (D-CA), Doris Matsui (D-CA), Jared Polis (D-CO), William Keating (D-MA), Jose Serrano (D-NY), Nydia Velazquex (D-NY), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT), Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Luis Gutierrez (D-IL), Gerald Connolly (D-VA), Matt Cartwright (D-PA), Gene Green (D-TX), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Pedro Pierluisi (D-P.R.), Mark Takano (D-CA), Mark Pocan (D-WI), Michael Honda (D-CA), Steve Israel (D-NY), Andre Carson (D-IN), Peter DeFazio (D-OR), Sam Farr (D-CA), Donna Edwards (D-MD), Niki Tsongas (D-MA), John Yarmuth (D-KY), John Lewis (D-GA), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Mark Desaulnier (CA), Jerry McNerney (CA), Charles Rangel (D-NY), Joseph Kennedy III (D-MA), Danny Davis (D-IL), Donald Beyer (D-VA), Bobby Rush (D-IL), Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Keith Ellison (D-MN), John Larson (D-CT), Stephen Lynch (D-MA), Sander Levin (D-MI), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Albio Sires (D-NJ), Ann Kuster (D-NH), Jim Langevin (D-RI), Maxine Waters (D-CA), Joe Crowley (D-NY), Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Juan Vargas (D-CA).