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Burma Tibet/R Gere/USA Today



The following on Tibet is posted in the hope that the Free Burma
Movement, on this Prayer Day for a Free Burma, March 16? 1997, may also
pause to think of Tibetans in the same spirit and solidarity for which
we feel they must harbor for the Chinese-aided repression in Burma, and
may we invite their compassion and support. 

Thank you, metta, Dawn Star, paris


Tibet a litmus test for U.S. moral resolve
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
USA Today, March 13, 1997

By Richard Gere

In occupied Tibet, one of the last ancient spiritual cultures on earth,
Chinese soldiers rape nuns with cattle prods, routinely imprison monks
and
interfere with almost every aspect of Tibetan life. I have seen evidence
of
these abuses during my own travels in Tibet, and I have wept with these
simple and deeply religious people whose inner strength persists
miraculously
in the face of cultural extinction.

We can only hope that the transition of power from the late Deng
Xiaoping,
who was the architect of China's Tibet policy, to Jian Zemin will herald
a
new opening in the history of China-Tibet relations and will present
Bill
Clinton with a new chance to get his China policy right.

Until now, China's brutal disregard for the most basic human freedoms
seems
a matter of scant importance to Clinton and his appointees. Furthermore,
recent revelations that the Chinese Embassy may have been involved in
illegal
campaign contributions to the Democratic Party raise a disturbing
possibility
that the president's U-turn in addressing China's abysmal human rights
record
may not be due merely to lack of moral steadfastness or a result of
shortsighted advice.

The roster of recent visitors to the White House, which includes despots
guilty of the most despicable acts of brutality, bagmen bearing gifts on
behalf of dubious interests, international arms dealers and other
sinister
characters, should further increase our concern about Clinton's place in
history. The president's own State Department recently reported that the
values and freedoms that lie at the core of the American national
identity
and for which many Americans have laid down their lives are all but
nonexistent in China, where nearly every champion of freedom and
democracy
is today a political prisoner or in exile.

China invaded Tibet in 1949 and has occupied the country ever since. The
popular and rightful leader of the Tibetan people is the Dalai Lama, who
along with 80,000 of his countrymen narrowly escaped into India in 1959,
where he established the democratic Tibetan government in exile. In
1989, he
received the Nobel Prize for Peace.

In light of what Tibet has endured in its four decades of Chinese
military
occupation, what is extraordinary is the modesty of the Dalai Lama's
demands. He wants no vengeance. He wants no prosecutions. He harbors no
malice. He doesn't even demand the return of political sovereignty. What
he
asks for is an honest and sincere exchange with China's rulers directed
at
the cultural and spiritual survival of the Tibetan nation. He wants for
his
people the right to pray in peace, to express their cultural identity,
to
develop economically and spiritually, and to continue existing as a
distinct
and extraordinary people.

I saw the Dalai Lama recently on an International Campaign for
Tibet-sponsored congressional delegation to India. Typically, he urged
us
not to worry so much about the cold shoulder he is given by the White
House.
Not having this Nobel Peace Prize winner's equanimity, though, I am left
with the question: Why is this man's message of peace and conciliation
one
that Clinton is unwilling to hear?

Tibet may become the litmus test of American moral strength abroad as
the
new century dawns, a measure of what we value as a people and how we
ourselves will be judged by history. Already, more and more Americans
are
rising to this challenge and demands for action on Tibet are growing.
Hollywood, both America's most sensitive barometer of public trends and
its
most potent communications engine, is embracing the issue of Tibet with
a
number of feature films.

Among these efforts are two movies focusing on the personage of the
Dalai
Lama himself - Kundun, directed by Martin Scorsese, and Seven Years in
Tibet, directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud. It is noteworthy that Kundun's
producer, Disney, was pressured by Beijing to drop the project but
refused
to back down. China was shocked by the clarity of Disney's response and
quickly backpedaled. The president should take note: Clarity and
decisiveness are respected and responded to by China, and world opinion
has
an enormous effect there.

China is right to be concerned. As public sentiment builds, as the
simple
and compelling message of the Tibetan people finds a sympathetic ear
among
moral, freedom-loving Americans, politicians will be able to ignore this
issue only at their peril.

So Clinton's challenge is twofold: to prove to all of us that U.S.
foreign
policy is not for sale to the highest bidder, and to exercise
world-class
moral leadership on behalf of the Tibetans and oppressed peoples
everywhere.

As American Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists or whatever, we all
know
deep in our hearts that a threat to religious freedom anywhere is a
threat
everywhere, a blight on the human condition. It is our defining
challenge to
respond and our leaders' defining challenge to champion our cause.

Richard Gere is a film actor and the co-chair of the International
Campaign
for Tibet.