The Gavel has a great report from Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s meeting in Dharamsala, India with the Dalai Lama:

The delegation was welcomed to the community by thousands of Tibetans in a ceremony led by Speaker Karma Choephel of the Tibetan Government-in-Exile. The delegation then proceeded to an audience with His Holiness the Dalai Lama where they discussed issues relating to Tibet and the plight of Tibetan refugees in India.

In the afternoon, the delegation visited the Tibetan Children’s Village, supported in part with U.S. assistance, that educates and looks after thousands of Tibetan children, most of whom are orphans and new refugees from Tibet. The delegation also met with Tibetan monks, nuns, and children who recently escaped Tibet over the perilous Himalayan mountain passes.

In addition to Speaker Pelosi, the congressional delegation includes the Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Edward Markey of Massachusetts, Ranking Member James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, Chairman of the House Democratic Policy Committee George Miller of California, and Representatives Jim McDermott of Washington, Eleanor Holmes Norton of the District of Columbia, Anna Eshoo of California, Jay Inslee of Washington, Rush Holt of New Jersey and Hilda Solis of California.

The members of the Congressional delegation have done a very honorable thing in the pursuit of freedom and peace. I want to extend my deep thanks to all of them for traveling to Dharamsala to meet with the Dalai Lama and raise the profile of what is happening in Tibet. Further, this meeting by high level congressmen and women of both parties shows that the US takes the Tibetan government-in-exile seriously and at least some of our elected officials are looking to engage the TGIE to produce a solution for Tibet.

During her remarks, Speaker Pelosi said one thing that particularly stood out to me for its prescience and moral clarity:

If freedom loving people throughout the world do not speak out against China’s oppression in Tibet we have lost all moral authority to speak on human rights anywhere in the world. The cause of Tibet is a challenge to the conscience of the world. A challenge we can help meet.

Amen. Those of us who are free to speak and free to act have a moral obligation to do so in the face of oppression and injustice. It does not matter where we live and what transgressions our forefathers may have committed – we are here today and we have the power and thus the obligation to speak out. And now, with clarity and immediacy, we must speak out for Tibet.

There is no doubt, Tibetans are being murdered at the hands of the Chinese government for speaking out themselves. You see, Tibetans simply are not free to speak out for their independence. Doing so, as untold thousands are doing now, comes at the risk of beatings, imprisonment, torture, and death. But we do not face the same hurdles outside of China and so we must speak out for Tibet. The obligation that comes with our privileges as free people who love our freedom is that we must exercise it on behalf of those oppressed peoples who yearn for freedom. Right now our obligation lies with the plight of Tibetans who seek independence from China’s brutal military occupation.