Address to Olympic Sponsors

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" height=110 BGCOLOR="#990033" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <I><B>                 Truth For Tibet</B></I></div> <div> <B>                                             </B></div> <div> <A HREF="http://www.truthfortibet.org/index.html" TARGET="_top" TITLE="http://www.truthfortibet.org/index.html"><U><B>home</B></U></A><B>  </B><FONT SIZE="3" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Verdana" ><I><B>          </B></I></FONT></div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="38e5eac01egerdp.gif"> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B><IMG SRC="38e7f9580.jpg" border=0 width="249" height="344" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></I></div> <div> <B> His Holiness the Dalai Lama speaking after receiving</B></div> <div> <B>the Congressional Medal of Honor. Six months later </B></div> <div> <B>his people are  being beaten, tortured and murdered</B></div> <div> <B>because they are peacefully demonstrating for their </B></div> <div> <B>right to acknowledge him as their spiritual leader. </B></div> <bR> <bR> <div> <I><B>APRIL 14th, 2008  </B></I></div> <div> <I><B>AN APPEAL TO THE CORPORATE SPONSORS OF THE 2008 OLYMPIC GAMES TO ADDRESS THE CRISIS IN TIBET</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <I><B>Statement by MAURA MOYNIHAN, for the</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Tibetan Youth Congress of New York & New Jersey</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Contact: Maura Moynihan; 917-887-8380</B></I></div> <div> <I><B>Tsering Palden: 631-838-1867</B></I></div> <bR> <div> <B>We gather here before the United Nations, where the people of the world unite for common purpose; the peace and welfare of mankind.  It is before this august body that we have come to honor and to mourn our brothers and sisters in Tibet who have been murdered by the People's Republic of China in the past four weeks.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>Over the past month, the Tibetan people let out a cry of anguish. The Chinese Government met their cries as they have for six decades; with the whip, the lash, the jackboot.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>As we speak today, before the United Nations, the six million people in Tibet are silenced by defacto martial law. They have no recourse to action, to justice or to safety.  Fathers, mothers, children, monk, nuns, have been arrested, beaten, tortured and killed.  The People's Republic of China is waging a state sponsored campaign of political repression and religious persecution executed with alarming savagery, in defiance of world opinion and the United Nations covenants to which China is a signatory and partner.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The Chinese Government is trying to stop all photographs, testimonies and witnesses of their sadistic persecution of the Tibetan people from reaching the free world. For six decades they have succeeded.  For six decades the Chinese Government has tortured and murdered innocent men and women in the dark cells of their vast gulag. Until this moment they have escaped accountability, censure and consequence. But in four months China will host the 2008 Olympic Games, and now the world is watching.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>For so many years we have been told that China will never change. That China is unmoved by international opinion. That China has crushed Tibet  and the story is over.   But the wave of fury that drowned the Olympic Torch is proof that the story is not over, that China has not crushed Tibet, that China is petrified of showing the true face of its police state to the world.  China will never change if we remain silent. And if the people of the world do not speak and act for the Tibetans, the Uighers, for Chinese political prisoners, for all victims of China's police state, who will?</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>The conduct of the People's Republic of China has outraged the conscience of mankind. China has shamefully violated the humanitarian ideals symbolized by the United Nations and the Olympic Games.  In sworn agreements to the International Olympic Committee, China promised liberty, transparency and fair play, as host to the 2008 Olympic Games. All participants and sponsors of the Olympic Games must hold China accountable for its transgressions of these principles.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>We appeal to all board members, shareholders and employees of the corporate sponsors of the 2008 Olympic Games; Coca-Cola, MacDonalds', Nike, Addidas, Samsung, Lenovo, Volkswagen, BHP Billiton, to pressure the People's Republic of China to immediately lift martial law in Tibet, to cease and desist from torture and all cruel and inhuman treatment of the Tibetan people, and to allow international journalists, diplomats, medical and humanitarian aid workers and tourists full access to Tibet, and to cancel the Olympic Torch relay through Tibet.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>We appeal to the corporate sponsors of the 2008 Olympic Games to uphold their commitments to their shareholders and customers, to honor international standards of corporate social responsibility and the universal rights of their fellow man. We know that they do not wish to appease or enrich with a regime that tortures children and murders monks, beyond the 2008 Beijing Olympics.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>This is a decisive moment for Tibet and for China. The world is watching and waiting for China to do the right thing. If the corporate sponsors of the Olympic Games will join with religious leaders and heads of state to compel the Chinese government to cease and desist its military assault on the Tibetan people, to allow the international community full access to Tibet, and to meet with the Dalai Lama, this will bring peace and understanding between the people of Tibet and the people of China. This will be the ultimate victory for the 2008 Olympic Games, a victory that would earn the corporate sponsors international honor and acclaim. </B></div> <bR> <div> <B>In his address to Tibet supporters in San Francisco on April 8th, 2008, Bishop Desmond Tutu said that the world wide support for Tibet is proof that "We live in a moral universe".   We the people of world have heard the people of Tibet cry out in pain.  We will not turn away, we will not be silent.  No tyranny was ever felled, no prisoner was ever rescued with silence. As the 19th century African American Abolitionist Frederick Douglass famously said;  </B></div> <div> <B>"Power concedes nothing without demand. It never did and it never will." We will speak and act for our Tibetan brothers and sisters at this dark hour, because we live in a moral universe.</B></div> <bR> <div> <B>A video of this speech:  </B><A HREF="mauramoynihan_address04_08.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="On the Ground"><U><B>Maura Moynihan Addresses the Corporate Sponsors of the Olympic Games</B></U></A></div> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>