Richard Gere with US Congress members to build support for Tibet

Dharamsala, March 28 (IANS) International Campaign for Tibet Chairman and Hollywood star Richard Gere will take part in two events with members of the US Congress at the Capitol to build support for Tibet.

The events on Tuesday are a hearing of the Congressional-Executive Commission on China featuring the democratically elected leader of Tibetans in exile. Four members of Congress introduced the Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act.

Gere's visit there is part of the events around Tibet Lobby Day, coordinated by ICT, which will bring over 150 Tibetan Americans and Tibet supporters to Washington to encourage support for the legislation.

The Congressional-Executive Commission on China will hold a hearing on "Preserving Tibet: Cultural Erasure, Forced Assimilation, and Coercion of Tibetans in the US".

Gere will testify at the event alongside Penpa Tsering, the Sikyong (President) of the Central Tibetan Administration, which provides democratic governance for Tibetans in exile, who will participate virtually.

Other witnesses are Lhadon Tethong and Tenzin Dorjee of Tibet Action Institute.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, House Committee on Rules Ranking Member Jim McGovern, D-Mass., Senator Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Senator Todd Young, R-Ind., will host a bipartisan press conference with Gere to highlight the important plight of the Tibetans.

The lawmakers will discuss their bipartisan, bicameral legislation, the Promoting a Resolution to the Tibet-China Conflict Act, to achieve its long-standing goal of getting Tibetan and Chinese Communist Party leaders to resolve their differences peacefully through dialogue.