Czech conf. Free Burma????

[cd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

is there a free burma presence at this czech conference of nobel
peacers, a video from suu kyi, rep of ncgub, burma project (osi) or demo
from european organisers? is there coordination on this??

if there is, would someone please say so for those who wish to attend
and coordinate. is there a message to deliver to the organisers. contact
people to sign up for support on petitions, actions, statement
supporters etc. 

i learnd about this rather late, and would like to attend, but now time
is running out. 

it would appear that this is an important rallying event that would
embrace fully the free burma cause, with added momentum and urgent
support needed.

dawn star
----
> Tuesday - September 2, 1997
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Contents:
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 1. His Holiness the Dalai Lama to visit Czech Republic
> 2. Swiss delegation to Tibet raised human rights issue: Swiss
>         source (AFP)
> 3. Nine percent of Tibetan prisoners are political: official  (AFP)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 1. His Holiness the Dalai Lama to visit Czech Republic
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> His Holiness the Dalai Lama will participate in an International Conference
> to be held under the auspices of His Excellency Vaclav Havel, President of
> the Czech Republic and Mr. Elie Wiesel,  Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, in
> Prague, from 3 - 7 September 1997, Czech Republic.
> 
> The Conference is known as "Forum 2000"(Concerns and Hope on the Threshold
> of the New Millennium) and it is expected to review the lessons of the past
> of human history and propose alternatives for the future It will address
> such issues as human values, cultural coexistence and challenges for
> accepting responsibility for the future of our planet. While noting that
> the world is more and more interlinked and is becoming smaller where there
> is no place on the planet whose destinies do not concern every body
> everywhere. Thus the existence of humankind, its cultures and civilization
> will be the main topic of the Conference.
> 
> It will be attended by numerous personages of world renown. They include
> Nobel Laureates,  philosophers, writers, politicians, journalists and
> religious figures.
> 
> Besides taking part in this very important International Conference His
> Holiness the Dalai Lama will meet President Havel separately.
> 
> His Holiness the Dalai Lama will be received by vice-president of the
> Senate, Mrs Moserova, in the House of the Senate where His Holiness is also
> expected to meet several members of the Senate including the President of
> thc Senate.
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 2. Swiss delegation to Tibet raised human rights issue: Swiss
>         source (AFP)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> BEIJING, Sept 1 (AFP) - A Swiss delegation raised human rights and justice
> issues with Chinese authorities in the Tibet during a visit to the
> Himalayan region, a Swiss embassy source said here Monday.
> 
> "We put forth all the relevant issues, including human rights and justice,
> and we got responses to all questions," the source said, adding the tour's
> primary goal was to research education and health in Tibet.
> 
> "A one-week stay is not enough to get an impression on these issues," he said.
> 
> The delegation, led by foreign ministry ambassador Urs Ziswiler, included
> three members of parliament, three journalists and a scholar specialising
> in China.
> 
> It met with with numerous officials in Lhasa and Shigatse and inspected
> Swiss-supported medical projects, the source said, adding its conclusions
> would be released on Thursday in Switzerland.
> 
> The delegates found no reason to end participation in the projects, which
> he termed "quite modest."
> 
> According to the official Xinhua news agency, politburo standing committee
> member Li Ruihuan urged them after the visit to criticise any aspect of
> Tibet's government -- but only if they first recognise that Tibet is part
> of China.
> 
> "Starting from this stand, it will be easy for us to achieve a common
> understanding, either speaking of the progress there or criticising as you
> deem necessary ... the more shortcomings you point out in our work, the
> more helpful it will be to us," he said during a meeting here on Saturday.
> 
> He said religion -- a key issue in Tibetan culture -- was a long-term and
> complex issue that must be handled with great care.
> 
> "We are atheists, and there are differences between we atheists and
> theists, but such differences should not mean antagonism between people.
> 
> "Under the common task of building a prosperous, democratic and civilised
> modern China, differences in religious beliefs are secondary," Li said.
> 
> Criticism from a string of recent visitors to Tibet has put its Chinese
> rulers on the defensive.
> 
> An independent European fact-finding mission recently said in a report that
> Tibet fit the bill as a colonized society.
> 
> The three-member team, which spent five days in Tibet in late April, urged
> Beijing to negotiate as early as possible genuine autonomy for the region.
> 
> "Tibet is a society of fear. There is no freedom in Tibet. It is
> suffocating and Tibetan religious culture is strangled," said Cees
> Flinterman, a law professor and former head of the Netherlands delegation
> to the UN Human Rights Commission.
> 
> US Congressman Frank Wolf, who visited the territory disguised as a
> tourist, also accused China of "swallowing" Tibet and wiping out its
> indigenous language and religion through violent repression.
> 
> Seven German members of parliament are due to arrive in Tibet this week to
> urge Chinese authorities to stop human rights violations in the region.
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 3. Nine percent of Tibetan prisoners are political: official  (AFP)
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> BEIJING, Aug 30 (AFP) - The head of Tibet's prison system admitted Saturday
> that political inmates accounted for nine percent of the troubled Chinese
> region's total prison population.
> 
> Tsering Puncog, director of the Tibet Bureau of Prison Administration, said
> Tibet had only three prisons, where the number of inmates comprised 0.075
> percent of the region's population.
> 
> Tibet's population officially stood at 2.4 million at the end of 1995,
> which would make the prison population around 1,800, according to Puncog's
> figures.
> 
> "Prisoners charged with endangering state security account for nine percent
> of that number. The rest have committed criminal offences," he was quoted
> as saying by the official Xinhua news agency.
> 
> The Chinese authorities usually deny the existence of any political
> prisoners, prefering to label all inmates as "criminals."
> 
> Puncog's remarks were contained in a general rebuttal to recent comments on
> Tibet by US Congressman Frank Wolf, who earlier this month accused China of
> gradually "swallowing" Tibet after returning from a trip he made to the
> Himalayan region disguised as a tourist.
> 
> "If Wolf had seen the prisons with his own eyes, and if he were not
> prejudiced, he would have found that our jails treat and reform prisoners
> with a spirit of socialist humanitarianism," Puncog said.
> 
> He also pledged that Tibet would throw open the doors of its prisons "to
> those who really want to know the situation."
> 
> The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has spent years
> negotiating prison access with the Chinese authorities.
> 
> Tibetans in exile and Western critics have charged China with implementing
> repressive policies that amount to cultural genocide in the Himalayan
> region.
> 
> Numerous reports of arbitrary arrest, torture and death in detention have
> been logged by human rights groups.
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> end WTN 97/09/02 18.00 GMT
> 
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