Tibet Film Shown to Provincial Legislatures of South Africa[Wednesday, 26 October 2010]

Elected members to the South Africa’s Provincial Legislatures watch film on Tibetans’ struggle for religious freedom, at an event organised by the Pretoria-based Office of TIbet

Pretoria:
The film ‘Devotion & Defiance’  describing Tibetan people’s
struggle for religious freedom was shown to the elected Democratic
Alliance members at the City Hall of Gauteng Provincial Legislature on
Thursday, 21 October. The caucus leader of the Democratic Alliance
Hon’ble John Moodey and DA Members of Provincial Legislatures accorded
warm reception to the representatives of the Office of Tibet in
Lyttelton, Pretoria.Presenting a brief update on Tibet prior to
screening of the film, Mr Sonam Tenzing, Representative of His Holiness
the Dalai lama for Africa, said: “Since communist party seized control
of China, it has been telling lies to the world that Tibet is part of
China. But the truth is Tibet was a sovereign independent nation before
invasion in 1949/1950. This historical fact cannot be concealed,
dismissed or obliterated. … From 1959 onwards, six million Tibetan
people experienced suffering and continues to suffer under the most
repressive authoritarian regime. Sadly, past UN resolutions on Tibet
remains unimplemented. The government of China uses its muscle at every
opportunity to block discussions on issues of human rights violations
in Tibet.”He informed the Gauteng Provincial Legislatures that
severe restrictions are imposed on Tibetan people’s way of life such as
curbing celebration of their leader’s birthday,  disallowing prayer
activity during Buddhist festivals, non-implementation of Tibetan
language education, forcing learned Buddhist monks and nuns to denounce
their revered leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama during patriotic
re-education sessions. He further informed the provincial
legislatures that a document titled Memorandum on Genuine Autonomy for
the Tibetan People followed by was presented to the Chinese government
by the Tibetan envoys as a sincere act of resolving the Tibet-China
conflict.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama’s representative Sonam Tenzing (left) honours caucus leader of the Democratic Alliance Hon’ble John Moodey (C)

Internationally,
the document is applauded as a genuine commitment displayed by His
Holiness the Dalai Lama and the Central Tibetan Administration with
many world leaders calling on Chinese leaders to resume dialogue. He
urged provincial leaders Tibetan people need support of South African
people, their leaders and law-makers to bring an end to the sufferings
of the six-million people of Tibet. After the film screening,
honorable members of Gauteng Provincial Legislature made observations,
besides raising questions which were answered to by the representatives
of the Office of Tibet. Mr John Moodey said he has learned so much from the film and vowed to work toward initiating  a position on Tibet by his party.(Report filed by the Office of Tibet, Pretoria, South Africa)