Tibetans express their irk at US Congressmen's letter

Dharamsala, Nov 18: Three members of the United States Congress, Frank R. Wolf, James P. McGovern, and Joseph Pitts, have sent a letter on Nov 17, 2011 to US Ambassador to China, Gary Locke, asking him to visit Tibet in the light of the recent self immolations and "publicly using his platform as Ambassador to make it clear to the Tibetan people that they have a friend in the United States of America."

Stating this in Dharamsala, a high official of the Tibetan Government in Exile at Dharamsala on Friday said, “ All of these Congressmen are members of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission."

In their letter to the ambassador about the recent testimony of Tibetan Prime Minister (Kalon Tripa) Dr Lobsang Sangay and His Eminence Kasur Kirti Rinpoche to the Lantos Commission, the members said: "Their testimony was moving and deeply disturbing. They spoke of the abuses suffered by the Tibetan people which in recent months have driven these peace-loving people to desperate forms of protests."

Spokesperson said that the Congressmen urged ambassador Locke to press for a fact-finding mission into Kirti Monastery which has featured prominently in the recent wave of self-immolations. "Raise the Chinese government's repressive policies in Tibet with senior party officials and publicly use your platform as Ambassador to make it clear to the Tibetan people that they have a friend in the United States of America," they said.

They also called on the ambassador to press the Chinese government to respect the peaceful religious, political, civic, and cultural expressions of the Tibetan people.

OneIndia News