Via Mikel Dunham, Neil Abercrombie (D-HI) and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) have formed the Tibet Caucus in Congress and have invited their colleagues to join them. Here’s the text of the Dear Colleague letter Abercrombie and Rohrabacher:
Dear Colleague,
In 1941-1951, the newly established Chinese Communist regime sent military troops to occupy Tibet. Since then, Tibet has been under active Beijing rule. The occupation of Tibet by the Peoples Republic of China’s (PRC) has been disastrous for the Tibetan people. Most monasteries, religious structures and other aspects of Tibetan Buddhism and culture were either totally destroyed or damaged. There are reports that over 1 million Tibetans died during the first 30 years of PRC rule. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has mercilessly repressed policital dissent and religious freedom of Tibet.
In 1959, at the age of 24, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, fled Tibet, under threat of imprisonment and execution, and went into exile in India with a group of his followers. He remains there today, along with a Tibetan refugee community of tens of thousands, and he is still widely regarded as the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people, their foremost advocate, and a figure of international stature. He has stated his willingness to accept cultural autonomy for Tibet under the Chinese Constitution. He has also been willing to negotiate with Beijing and has advanced a number of very moderate proposals regarding Tibet’s future status. The Communist regime, however has only met this attempt at accommodation with stiff opposition, and is currently instigating yet another crackdown in the lead up to the Beijing Olympics.
Congress has stood strongly by the Tibetan people as they bravely struggled for their rights. In 1991 the Congress passed a resolution stating that Tibet is an occupied country. We cannot stand silently by and watch as another wave of brutality and oppression sweeps across the country by the Beijing regime. We urge you to join the Tibetan Caucus to uphold the rights of the Tibetan people and give a voice to those that the Chinese regime has silenced.
Hopefully there’s a good enrollment in the new Tibet Caucus.
Hold Fast 
Japan’s Emperor Akihito and other members of the royal family are unlikely to attend the Beijing Olympics amid concerns here about China’s crackdown in Tibet and other issues, a report said Wednesday.
The Japanese government thinks it is not a good time for a rare royal visit because of the unrest in Tibet, a recent health scare over Chinese-made “gyoza” dumplings and a spat over disputed gas fields, the Sankei daily said.
“We were planning not to ask royals to go even before the gyoza incident (surfaced in January). It is all the more true now that the Tibetan unrest occurred,” it quoted an unnamed government official as saying.
Japanese authorities have confirmed at least 10 people suffered pesticide poisoning after eating tainted dumplings imported from China.
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao invited Emperor Akihito and other royals to the opening ceremony of the August Olympics when he visited Japan last year.
The emperor told Wen then that the government decides on the royal family’s foreign trips, a palace spokesman said.
The foreign ministry said no formal decision had been made.
“Nothing has been decided regarding the attendance of dignitaries,” a ministry official said.
The last trip to China by members of Japan’s imperial household was a landmark visit by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko in 1992.
China remains deeply resentful over Japan’s brutal occupation from 1931 to 1945, an era in which the Japanese revered Akihito’s father Hirohito as a demigod.
The two countries have recently worked to mend ties, which were strained by former Japanese prime minister Junichiro Koizumi’s annual visits to a war shrine in Tokyo, which Beijing regards as a symbol of Japan’s militarist past.
Chinese President Hu Jintao is expected to visit Japan in the coming months.
http://www.france24.com/en/20080402-japans-royals-likely-skip-olympics-report
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