Recognizing Plight of Tibetan People on 50th Anniversary of the Dalai Lama's Exile

Floor Speech

RECOGNIZING PLIGHT OF TIBETAN PEOPLE ON 50TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DALAI LAMA'S EXILE -- (House of Representatives - March 11, 2009)

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Mr. McGOVERN. Thank you. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this important resolution, and I want to thank my friend, Congressman Rush Holt, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the chairman and ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee for their leadership in the long struggle for freedom, dignity, and human rights in Tibet.

Mr. Speaker, for six decades the history of Tibet has been marked by violence. Even before 1949, the People's Liberation Army of China entered the eastern areas of Tibet during the Long March. In 1959, they finally occupied the capital of Lhasa.

Fifty years ago, on March 10, the Tibetan people rose up in Lhasa against Chinese rule. The backlash was furious and brutal. On March 17, the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa for his own safety, joined by some 80,000 Tibetans, for life in exile. Tens of thousands who remained were kill or imprisoned.

Thanks to the thriving exile communities in India, Europe, and the United States, Tibetan cultural identity, language, and religion have survived. They have focused world attention on the Tibetan struggle. But each and every year, the situation inside Tibet grows worse, with more repression, more arrests, more displacement, more deliberate destruction of the Tibetan language, culture, and religion.

One year ago, new protests rose up in Tibet. They were the result of greater controls over religious and cultural activity, development that mainly benefited Chinese migrants, and forced resettlement of farmers and nomads. Thousands and thousands were arrested. To date, there has been no full accounting by Chinese authorities of those arrested, detained, tried, sentenced, or released, and no access to those detained by the International Committee of the Red Cross or other international observers, and all the time the Tibetan people daily become more of a minority in their own land.

Mr. Speaker, as the new cochair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, it is humbling to follow in the footsteps of Thomas Lantos. The Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which he founded, was the very first to give the Dalai Lama a voice on Capitol Hill in 1987.

On this 50th anniversary, let's be very, very clear that the American people in this House stand with His Holiness. We will not rest until meaningful and full autonomy for the Tibetan people is achieved--and the Dalai Lama and his people can fulfill their dream of returning home to Tibet.

I thank the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee for generously giving me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of this important resolution, which recognizes the plight of the Tibetan people on the 50th Anniversary of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's exile and calls for a sustained multilateral effort toward a peaceful solution to the Tibet issue. I thank my friend Rush Holt, and the distinguished Ranking Member of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, as well the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, for their leadership on human rights and for bringing this resolution expeditiously to the floor.

Mr. Speaker, last Friday my friend and distinguished colleague, Frank Wolf and I were formally reappointed Co-Chairs of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, the successor body of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which I had the honor to co-chair with Frank Wolf after our former colleague Tom Lantos passed away.

I mention this because of the historic significance of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in getting the voice of the Tibetan people heard in the United States.

In 1987, it was Congressman Tom Lantos who had invited His Holiness the Dalai Lama to attend a meeting of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus as the first official government entity in the United States, despite stiff opposition from many quarters including the U.S. Administration to do so. Many were fearful what such an invitation would do to our bilateral relations with the People's Republic of China, and the PRC used every conceivable tool to prevent this historic meeting from happening.

Those voices of those critics in the United States soon fell quiet after the meeting took place, as the moral authority of his Holiness and his perstintly peaceful way to fight for meaningful autonomy of the Tibetan people attracted more and more support and with the American people and in Congress.

Twenty years later, it was this body that awarded His Holiness the Congressional Gold Medal in recognition of his life-long dedication to the causes of peace and non-violent resolution to the Tibet issue.

Mr. Speaker, the history of Tibet has long been marked by violence. Even before 1949, the People's Liberation Army of China entered the eastern areas of the traditional Tibetan territory on The Long March. In 1951, they finally occupied the Tibetan capital of Lhasa.

On this day fifty years ago, the Tibetan people rose up in Lhasa against Chinese rule, and the backlash was furious and brutal. As a consequence, His Holiness the Dalai Lama fled Lhasa on March 17, 1959, for his own

safety. He was joined by some 80,000 Tibetans in exile. Tens of thousands of Tibetans who remained were either killed or imprisoned.

The human rights situation became so dire that in 1959, 1961 and 1965 (before China became a member of the United Nations), the UN General Assembly passed resolutions condemning the human rights violations in Tibet and affirming Tibetans' right to self-determination.

Supported by thriving exile communities in India, the United States, Europe, Tibetan cultural identity, language and religion has survived and the world is paying attention to the Tibetan struggle.

In 2002 Congress passed the Tibetan Policy Act, the cornerstone of U.S. policy toward Tibet. The legislation codified the position of Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues in our State Department, to ensure that U.S. policy promotes a dialogue between the Chinese government and the representatives of the Dalai Lama, and this Act and its policies must remain the cornerstone of our policy regarding Tibet also under this Administration.

The policy of the United States Government has to be to continue promoting substantive dialogue between the Government of the People's Republic of China and the Dalai Lama or his representatives to resolve peacefully the dispute and to allow for the return of the Dalai Lama.

However, the United States cannot stand as a mere neutral facilitator in this dialogue, when the Chinese government time and time again uses these proceedings to hold out hope, only to drag out negotiations with His Holiness without ever making any progress or without ever achieving any concrete results. All this, while the Tibetan people become a minority in their own territory because of government-controlled migration, and the Tibetan culture is further eroded.

We cannot stand by neutrally, when the Chinese government kidnaps a six-year-old child, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, whom His Holiness has recognized as Panchen Lama, and allow the Chinese government to replace him with a more convenient Panchem Lama of their own choice.

On this 50th anniversary, let's be very clear that the American people and this Congress will always stand unwaveringly with His Holiness in this peaceful endeavors, and will not rest until meaningful and full autonomy for the Tibetan people is achieved, and His Holiness can fulfill his dream of returning to Tibet.

Mr. Speaker, Tom Lantos' voice has fallen silent, but we cannot let our voices to fall silent too. We always need to speak out for the Tibetan people.

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