The Dalai Lama and Speaker Nancy Pelosi
(© The Huffington Post)
|
U.S. House Speaker Pelosi Asks China to Free Tibetans Detained for Peaceful Demonstrations
International Campaign for Tibet (ITC)
April 1, 2008
During a press conference in Washington D.C. on April 1st, 2008, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made the following comments about her recent trip to India:
"As fate would have it, when we planned out trip, we really didn't realize what would be happening following March 10 in Tibet. We planned to visit His Holiness the Dalai Lama, to pay our respects to him, to join in his ongoing call for negotiations with the Chinese government for autonomy for Tibet. Again, as fate would have it on March 10, the 49th anniversary of the Chinese driving His Holiness the Dalai Lama out of China, the protests there were met by a crackdown of the Chinese government, so we were there at a time when again, it was our fate to be there, and our fate to help.
"I myself am personally calling once again on the Chinese government to join, to sustain negotiations with His Holiness for a peaceful outcome to what is happening in Tibet for their autonomy, to immediately have independent outside monitors to review what happened in Tibet. The Chinese government is saying His Holiness is the instigator of violence—here is a person who is the personification of non-violence. They must have medical care brought in for those who have been deprived of it, to free those in prison who have been arrested for peacefully protesting."
|
