Former Noble Peace Prize winners pledge support to Tibet/ENG

2012. április 26./CTA/TibetPress

CHICAGO: Kalon Tripa Dr. Lobsang Sangay today met with Nobel peace prize winners FWD Clark for half an hour and Jody Williams and Shirin Ebadi for forty five minutes at the ongoing 12th Noble Laureates Conference held in Chicago, United States.

During his discussion with the world leaders, he conveyed the good wishes of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and thanked them for expressing their support to the Tibetan struggle.

The Nobel laureates recently wrote a letter to the Chinese leaders in Beijing to hold open talks with His Holiness the Dalai to resolve the issue of Tibet peacefully.

Kalon Tripa also informed them the successful political transition of Tibetan leadership in exile, from His Holiness the Dalai Lama to a democratically elected leader in August 2011.

The noble laureates applauded the efforts of His Holiness the Dalai Lama to usher in political reforms, saying his decision to separate political from spiritual leadership was magnanimous and in the long-terms interests of the Tibetan people.

As the political leader of the Tibetan people, Kalon Tripa informed them the present crisis in Tibet and the ongoing self-immolations by Tibetans to resist Chinese occupation.

Since Tapey’s self-immolation on 16 March 2009, thirty-six Tibetans –monks, nuns, lay Tibetans – have set themselves on fire to protest China’s iron-grip occupation of Tibet. Of them, twenty-eight lost their lives.

Expressing their deep sadness over the deaths of Tibetans and solidarity to the Tibetan freedom movement, the Nobel laureates urged Kalon Tripa to keep informing them about developments in Tibet.

They said, ‘we reiterate our pledge to support Tibetan people and the peaceful resolution of Tibetan struggle.’

The Nobel Laureates’ Conference is held every year to discuss and tackle urgent issues such as poverty, income inequalities, human rights abuses, environmental crisis and nuclear arms race threatening the global planet.