(TibetanReview.net, Mar06, 2015) – Around 100 Tibetan-Americans and supporters from 15 states took part in the seventh annual Tibet Lobby Day which was held in Washington, DC, ovr Mar2-3, said the city-based International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) which organizes the annual event with other Tibet groups, including Tibetan associations in the United States and Students for a Free Tibet. They called on their lawmakers to urge the US Congress to support concrete actions to solve the Tibet crisis and support Tibetans in their effort to protect their culture, religion and identity.
“As a former Tibetan political prisoner who benefited from international support during my imprisonment by the Chinese authorities, the Tibet Lobby Day provided me, as a Tibetan American now, with the opportunity to do something concrete for the Tibetan people,” Ngawang Sangdrol from Massachusetts, who has been a regular participant in the event, was quoted as saying. “From my own experience, I can vouch for the fact that any such actions taken internationally do positively impact the Tibetans in Tibet.”
The lobbyists visited more than 150 offices to urge Congress to continue funding for Tibet programs in the annual appropriations bill, support legislations on Tibet and related issues, and urge Secretary of State John Kerry to take up the cause of Tibetan political prisoners, specifically those needing medical attention.
Apart from personal visits by the lobbyists, ICT said its members sent online messages to House and Senate offices of 49 states as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, to ask for these distinct measures of support.
ICT said the Tibet Lobby Day had come to be recognized as an annual event by many of the Congressional offices visited by participants.