Swiss Parliamentary Delegation Visits Dharamsala

Mario Fehr (middle), President, Swiss Parliamentary Group for Tibet speaking to media, Friday, 28 March 2003, Dharamsala. (Photo Tenam)

Dharamsala, 28March 2003: Four members of the Swiss Parliamentary Group for Tibet, led by its President Mr. Mario Fehr, visited Dharamsala at the invitation of the Assembly of the Tibetan People’s Deputies. The Parliamentary delegation members are Mr. Mario Fehr, Mr. Fabio Pedrina, Ms Kathy Riklin and Ms Maya Graf.

They were accompanied by representatives of the Swiss Tibet Friendship
Association – Ms Ruth Gonseth, former MP and Mr. Christian Ruch, Ms Nima
Changten, Vice President of the Tibetan community in Switzerland and
Lichtenstein, and Mr Tenzin D. Sewo, President, Tibetan Youth Association in
Europe, and Mr. Bhugyal from the Tibet Bureau, Geneva.

Speaking to media here in Dharamsala, Mr. Mario Fehr, President, Swiss
Parliamentary Group for Tibet, said that, “We will ask our government to
recognise the Tibetan government in exile if no substantial dialogue takes
place between Tibetan government in exile and China.”

Besides meeting with Tibetan officials from the Central Tibetan
Administration, the delegation also visited the Parliament in session,
various Tibetan institutions, Tibetan Children’s Village School, Sherab Gatseling school followed by an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama. They also met with members of four major Tibetan NGOs – The Tibetan Youth Congress, Tibetan Women’s Association, Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, and National Democratic Party of Tibet.

Mr Mario Fehr said that they now have a first hand understanding of the
Tibetan situation and the workings of its democratic institutions in exile.
He also said that the relationship between the Swiss people and Tibetans
goes back to more than four decades when Swiss government accepted to
resettle around a thousand Tibetan refugees in Switzerland.