ATPD Chief Tours Europe, ATPD Greets New Pope
Dharamshala 22 April 2005: Mr. Pema Jungney, the Chairman of the Assembly of the Tibetan People’s Deputies and Mr. Penpa Tsering, Executive Director of the Delhi based Tibetan Parliamentary and Policy Research Centre arrived in Rome on 18 April 2005.
Mr. Pema Jungney and Mr. Penpa Tsering will meet with Hon. Gianni Vernetti, the president of the Italian Parliamentary group for Tibet which was instrumental in the passage of several resolutions on Tibet in the Italian parliament in the past. The group has a membership of more than 160 MPs from all political parties in the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of the Italian Parliament.
Mr. Vernetti led a delegation of Italian legislators to Dharamshala last year and announced that the Italian Parliamentary Group would organise the World Parliamentarians’ Convention on Tibet. The convention is expected to bring together more than 130 members from 31 different parliamentary groups for Tibet around the world.
The two arrived yesterday in Brussels, Belgium, and met with Mr. Thomas Mann, president of the European Parliament’s Tibet Inter-Group, and Hon. Walter Muls, president of the Belgian parliamentary Group for Tibet. They may also meet some members of the European Parliament.
They will also visit Switzerland to be received by Chhime R. Choekyapa, the representative of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, and meet with the local Tibetan community leaders. The two are expected to return to India by the end of the week.
Meanwhile, the Assembly of the Tibetan People’s Deputies has sent a letter to the newly elected Pope Benedict XVI on becoming the 265th head of Roman Catholics. The letter said, “We believe your Holiness will continue to enhance universal happiness and interfaith harmony.”