DHARAMSHALA: The Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile concluded its Flame of Truth torch relay today and will petition to the UN to effectively adopt measures with regard to the tragic situation prevailing inside Tibet.

Speaking to the public during the Nobel Peace Prize Day celebrations in Dharamshala, Penpa Tsering, Speaker of the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile said, the Flame of Truth relay covered more than 30 countries in five continents and gathered 351,000 support signatures.
 
Along with the flame of truth, a petition was also launched on the urgent need to address the tragic situation in Tibet to be presented to the United Nations Secretary General, he said.
 
He said that the Tibetan parliament will present the flame of truth torch and copies of the petition and the signatures to the UN Headquarters in New York, UN Human Rights Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva and UN Information Centre in New Delhi, India.
 
The Speaker appealed to the United Nations to pay serious attention to the issue of Tibet especially to the tragic situation prevailing inside Tibet currently.
 
He also said that an international Solidarity Day for Tibet will be observed annually on 17 May, the day on which the government of China kidnapped the 11th Panchen Lama Gedhun Choekyi Nyima. It was decided during the sixth World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet.
 
 The Flame of Truth was organised by the Tibetan Parliament-in-Exile in view of the tragic situation in Tibet today.
 
It was started on 6 July co-inciding with the birthday celebrations of His Holiness the Dalai Lama.  The campaign garnered a total of 351,000 signatures including 30,000 online signature from over 90 different countries. Signatories include Chief Ministers, Members of Parliaments, Speakers and Members of Legislative Assembly, Mayors, educationists, journalists, social workers, activists, students and the general public.
 
The petition of the campaign demands:
 
1.      The United Nations must discuss the issue of Tibet based on the resolutions that it has passed in 1959, 1961 and 1965, and continuously make efforts to fulfil the substance of these resolutions
 
 
2.      An independent international fact-finding delegations must immediately be sent to investigate the ongoing crisis in Tibet
 
 
3.      The United Nations must take special responsibility to ensure that the basic aspirations of the Tibetans inside Tibet are fulfilled