Fwd: Dalai Lama excluded from UN Peace Summit. Sign the petition

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Vedanta , JodyHoelle@a... wrote:

 

 

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The Dalai Lama is being excluded from the UN Peace Summit this summer.

 

 

MEDIA RELEASE

 

SHUTTING ITS DOORS ON THE DALAI LAMA:

THE UN's MILLENIUM PEACE SUMMIT OF SPIRITUAL LEADERS

 

1000 spiritual leaders have been invited to attend a four day

conference

at the United Nations in NYC from August 28-31st: the Millennium

Peace

Summit.

 

For many religious leaders and human rights activists, the problem

with

this seemingly auspicious gathering is that His Holiness, the Dalai

Lama,

is glaringly missing from the list of invitees.

 

What makes the omission of the Dalai Lama so remarkable is that he is

one

of the most respected spiritual leaders on the planet, as well as a

Nobel

Peace Prize laureate, perhaps the greatest honor one can receive

today.

 

The Conference was organized by Bawa Jain, under the authority of UN

Secretary General, Kofi Annan, nominal director of the Summit.

According

to Trustees of the Parliament of World Religions (for which Bawa Jain

is

the International Ambassador), Jain had said the Chinese government

exerted great pressure on conference organizers against any invitation

being sent to His Holiness. In an effort to explain away His Holiness

not

being invited, Jain had said UN protocol permitted any security

council

member to have veto power over any invitations being extended. The

problem with that excuse is that according to the Protocol Office of

the

UN, no member nation has such power, and that responsibility lies

instead

with conference organizers.

 

For many activists for religious freedom and human rights, and also

for

supporters of the Tibet cause, the perceived mistreatment of His

Holiness

by the UN reflects the UN's longstanding practice of ignoring human

rights

abuses in Tibet by the Chinese government, one of the five permanent

members of the Security Council. (Since the invasion of Tibet in

1949

by

the Chinese army, over one fifth of the Tibetan population have died

under

the Chinese occupation and more than 6000 monasteries have been

destroyed.)

 

Activists feel it also reflects the Chinese government's concerted

campaign to oppose any invita-tion to His Holiness by any government

or

conference, anywhere around the world.

 

The Parliament of World Religions, one of the major international

interfaith organizations in the world, is issuing a statement this

week,

strongly critical of this snub to His Holiness and to the Tibetan

people

by organizers of the Millennium Summit. This is the first statement

on

any

issue in the history of the Parliament, even more remarkable since the

Parliament is itself a partner in the Millennium Summit.

 

As news has been leaking out about His Holiness not being invited to

this

Summit, protest letters are pouring in from around the world to Kofi

Annan, (Many of these letters have been posted on the internet and are

accessible.)

 

At this Millennium Summit, the spiritual leaders who attend are

expected

to issue a Declaration for World Peace and they're also supposed to

form a

permanent International Advisory Council of Spiritual and Religious

Leaders.

 

According to Brahma Das, Director of the Interfaith Call for Universal

Religious Freedom, "Any Advisory Spiritual Council formed at this

Summit

will be severely devalued - due to the absence of His Holiness, and

also

from the lack of moral courage of Summit organizers in bowing to

pressure

and blandishments from the Chinese government."

 

According to Brother Wayne Teasdale, a Trustee of the Parliament of

World

Religions and the strongest critic within the Catholic Church of the

Church's silence on Tibet, "By working to exclude the Dalai Lama from

this

conference, the Chinese will accomplish exactly the opposite of what

they

hoped. They wanted no attention to the Chinese issue. Instead the

whole

world will be watching and thinking about His Holiness. And now for

the

religious and spiritual leaders of the world, Tibet is a test of

whether

they can exercise and demonstrate their moral authority and

leadership."

 

 

PETITION SUPPORTING THE INCLUSION OF HIS HOLINESS, THE DALAI LAMA AT

THE

MILLENNIUM PEACE SUMMIT OF WORLD SPIRITUAL LEADERS AT THE UNITED

NATIONS

 

 

We, the Undersigned, strongly protest the exclusion of His Holiness,

the

Dalai Lama, from the Millennium Peace Summit of Spiritual leaders -

being

held at the UN from August 28th-31st. The ones primarily

responsible

for

this Summit (UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and Bawa Jain) should

find

the moral courage to stand up against Chinese pressure and

inducements;

they should reverse their earlier decision and invite His Holiness -

one

of the most revered spiritual leaders on the planet as well as a Nobel

Peace Prize Laureate - to this gathering for peace of spiritual and

religious leaders........

 

To sign this petition, send your name, address, professional title if

appropriate and your email address to: BrahmaDas@A...

 

Tell your friends and send this on to whomever you feel would be

supportive about this. You can also direct them to the spiritwalk

bulletin board, http://www.spiritwalk.org/bulletin.htm

 

Thank you for your support in this.

 

PEACE

 

Roger Ebsen

Spiritwalk

 

 

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--- End forwarded message ---

[Guest guest]

>

> The Dalai Lama is being excluded from the UN Peace Summit this

summer.

>

>

 

Does anybody here have any info on the details of the invitee

list? We know that the Dalai Lama has not been invited, but do

we know who IS being invited for this thing, specifically, from

Hindu, Buddhist, Jain and other indigenous religious groups?

 

Vidyasankar