Nobel Laureates Urge Global Leaders to Engage China in Dialogue on TibetThursday, 29 October 2009, 8:45 a.m.

Three Women Nobel Peace Laureates Jody Williams of US, (1st from Left), Mairead Corrigan Maguire of Northern Ireland (2nd from L) and Shirin Ebadi of Iran (1st from Left) meets His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharamsala on 27 Oct. 2009

Dharamshala:
Expressing concern over some of the global leaders’ vested interest in
economic profits rather than human rights and democracy as in the case
of Tibet, prominent Nobel peace laureates have urged the world leaders
to persuade the Chinese government for negotiations to resolve the
issue of Tibet.Speaking on her meeting with Tibetan refugees in
Dharamsala, Mrs Mairead Corrigan Maguire, the winner of Nobel Peace
Prize for her efforts to end ethnic conflicts in Northern Ireland in
1976, said: “I was heart broken to see around 50 Tibetan men, women and
children crying, traumatised and desperate. One of the stories told by
a young man was that in his community in Tibet, many many Tibetans have
disappeared, dead bodies of Tibetans were found filled in wrappers and
many more were incinerated by Chinese police.”“In Tibet today,
for every one Tibetan there are eight police or soldiers. Tibetans are
living in inhumane conditions and they are not allowed to practice
their religion and culture,” Maguire told journalists in Dharamsala
yesterday.“We, as the human family do not accept these kinds of
standards in our world today. We challenge our political leaders for
considering profit above human rights and democracy,” she said.She
further said: “We must reaffirm that the international laws are not
applicable not to an elite few in our world, but to the entire human
family. We have to reestablish our human values in the world today.” “I
felt privileged to meet His Holiness the Dalai Lama, who is the
greatest spiritual and moral leaders in the world today as he has
spoken of the values of human lives and led Tibetans in their
nonviolent struggle. For fifty years he has preached peace,
nonviolence, justice, equality and reconciliation. These are values
that the world is in danger of losing and we must reaffirm these ethics
in our world today,” she said. She commended the Tibetan community in exile for bringing about genuine democracy based on principles of truth and nonviolence. She spoke of the current people’s movement towards building nonviolence, justice and genuine democracies in the world.She described the Tibetan community in Dharamsala as a model for the world to follow.Speaking
on her efforts in resolving the ethnic conflicts in Northern Ireland,
she said until we have justice for the minority groups, then only could
we move forward to bring peace. “The message from Northern Ireland was
that you could not solve these ethnic political problems through
militarism and abusing human rights in the international laws, but
through dialogue, negotiations and talking to each other, she added. The
Nobel laureate said China has the moral and political responsibility to
uphold human rights and dignity of the Tibetan people. The Chinese
government should give the legal rights to the Tibetan people as
enshrined in its Constitution. “The political and religious
leaders must listen to the voice of the peoples who are crying out for
human rights, justice and democracy. We want Tibetans to keep their
hopes high because you will see human rights and democracy in Tibet in
your day,” the Nobel laureate said.