CTA President Begins Scandinavia Visit with Engagements in Copenhagen, Denmark

COPENHAGEN, Denmark: CTA President Dr Lobsang Sangay started the first full day of his Scandinavia visit with an early morning interview with the Danish national newspaper Berlingske.

The President then had further meetings with Danish Parliamentarians representing a number of different political parties including Soren Espersen, foreign affairs spokesperson for the Danish People’s Party, Chairman of Foreign Policy Committee and member of Foreign Affairs committee, Mette Gjerskov and Kirsten Brosbol from the Social Democratic Party, Rasmus Nordqvist, foreign affairs spokesperson for The Alternative party, and Christian Juhl from the Red-Green Alliance.

During the meetings, the President briefed the Parliamentarians on the importance of Tibet’s environment, introduced them to the geographical landscape of Tibet and its unique features – the highest  plateau on the earth: water tower of the Asian continent; air cooler of the whole planet by taking out of the carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. However, President said this has been changing over the past years with the melting of a glacier at a rapid rate, primarily affected by relentless Chinese mining operations on the roof of the world. Dr Sangay said that the temperature on the Tibetan plateau is rising much faster than the rest of the world.

Since Beijing is not a signatory to the International water-sharing agreements, he said that geopolitical strategists fear that the coming war will be on water resources.

President also spoke on the cause of the self-immolations protests in Tibet, religious repression particularly at the world’s biggest Buddhist academy of Larung Gar and Yachen Gar. He said that in both centres, the Chinese government has recently demolished the residential quarters of monks and nuns and expelled the nuns and monks.

President Dr Sangay further touched on the issue of forced nomadic resettlement, the suppression of Tibetan language in the education policy that the Chinese government pursues inside Tibet, and the Middle Way policy of seeking genuine autonomy for the Tibetan people.

Following the meetings with the Parliamentarians, President Dr Sangay spoke to an audience of over 100 people at the event “What Now, Tibet?” jointly organised by Amnesty Denmark, the Tibet Support Committee Denmark, and Students for a Free Tibet Denmark. The event opened with a brief speech by Trine Christensen, Secretary General of Amnesty Denmark, on the human rights conditions in China followed by Dr Sangay’s speech on the situation in Tibet. The talks were followed by a lively Q&A session.