5/29/08 Update: The Free Tibet Team Japan has created an excellent new petition site, so act now to facilitate a Tibet-China dialogue.

[Japanese version]

After thousands of Japanese protested at the torch relay in Nagano, a newly formed initiative, Save Tibet Network, organized 4,200 strong public members. This group called for a free Tibet during Hu Jintao’s visit in Japan. Within one month, an astonishing 32,000 signatures were collected in Japan for a petition to urge the Japanese government, the United Nations and the Chinese government to act immediately to solve the Tibet issue.

The open letter below, written by Robert A.F. Thurman, calls for immediate action. You can simply sign your name at the end of the letter or write your own by including the following 3 points, and send it to your country’s leader (addresses below).

• Invite the Dalai Lama (with other Nobel Peace Prize laureates) to have a dialogue with Hu Jintao at the forthcoming G8 Summit meeting in Hokkaido, Japan along with the G8 members to resolve the Tibet issue. ASEAN countries as well as India, Pakistan and Afghanistan may also monitor this meeting.
• Pressure the Chinese government to have continuous and meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama and his representatives following the summit
• Have an independent group ensure the continuation of the dialogue

Join us to make this happen!

Dear G8 World Leaders,

We write you collectively with a serious request for you to take a step that would have far reaching consequences for the world. I’m sure you agree that the integration of China into the community of nations as a responsible, peaceful, and cooperative actor on the world stage is one of the two most important challenges facing us all right now.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama is one of the most well-known, respected, and visionary spiritual leaders in the world, quite familiar to all of you and to the people of your countries. The leaders of China are the only ones who do not know him personally, and that is something you all in concert could do something about. He can be of invaluable help in moving this integration in the right direction.

The Dalai Lama is a friend of China, its people, and its leadership. He wants their good just as much as he wants the good of the six million Tibetans he feels most responsible for. He is not unhappy for himself as things stand – as a realized Buddhist monk he is quite content in the state of “having gone from home to homelessness” (the description of a Buddhist renunciate), and India is considered the “Holy Land” by Buddhists.

Once the Chinese leadership takes the steps necessary to make his people happy by truly granting them the real autonomy they are promised in the Chinese constitution, then he will see to it that China’s deep wish for acknowledged, legitimate sovereignty over Tibet is fulfilled. This is not at all that hard for China to do; it would gain the Chinese leadership enormous prestige, would be of great benefit to the Chinese and the Tibetan people, and crucial to preserve the Tibetan Buddhist culture and the fragile environment of the Tibetan high plateau.

The Chinese leaders’ fear of the Dalai Lama and of the spirituality he represents has prevented them from getting to know him and enlisting his help in resolving their problems with the people of Tibet. By bringing him and them together at a world leaders’ summit would defuse this obstacle and initiate a whole new level of resolve on all sides to resolve this tragic situation that has persisted for more than half a century. It would be a historic event.

Perhaps to defuse the Chinese leaders’ reluctance to meet His Holiness, a half a dozen Nobel Laureates could be invited along with him; say Tutu, Wiesel, Gore, Yunus, Williams, Ibadi. There could be a special session for the G8 leaders with these Laureates, to have the Laureates’ perspective on the world situation; and then a private meeting between Dalai Lama and Hu Jintao would not be so conspicuous.

If this meeting can be effected, there is no doubt an important follow-up process will be initiated by the Chinese leaders themselves, the steps of which will be obvious. In hopes that you will give this proposal your strongest and most careful consideration and will decide to take this critical step at this critical moment.

Sincerely Yours,
Dr. Robert A.F. Thurman

Please post to your own site, add support in comments and suggest additional contacts. See Japanese version for Japanese contact information.

USA
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington DC, 20500
Fax: 202-456-2461
Email: comments@whitehouse.gov

UK
UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown
10 Downing Street, London SW1 2AA.
Fax: 020 7925 0918. (From outside the UK, the number is +442079250918)
webform

Canada
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, K1A 0A2
Email: pm@pm.gc.ca
Fax: 613-941-6900

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT)
125 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, ON, Canada K1A 0G2

Email: enqserv@dfait-maeci.gc.ca
Telephone: 1-800-267-8376 (toll-free in Canada), 613-944-4000 (in the National Capital Region and outside Canada), 613-944-9136 (TTY)
Facsimile: 613-996-9709

Germany
Angela Merkel, Prime Minister Germany (webform)
German Federal Prime Minister Prefecture (webform)

Germany Executive Office of the President
Email: poststelle@bpra.bund.de

German Christian Democratic Union (webform)

France
Monsieur President Nicolas Sarkozy
Le Palace Elysee
20 rue Quentin Bauchart
75008 Paris France
Email: contact@z-groupe.com

Monsieur Bernard Kouchner
Ministère des Affaires Etrangères
37, quai d’Orsay
75 007 PARIS

Italy
Italian government organization list
The Cabinet Office
Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi – Forza Italia (webform)

Russia
President Dmitry Medovajef
email: info@medvedev2008.ru

Media

BBC comment
CNN feedback