Congressman Tom Lantos, the first Congressman to invite the Dalai Lama to speak in Washington, DC and one of the main architects of the United States government’s policy on Tibet, passed away on the morning of February 11, 2008. Congressman Lantos had four generations of his family by his side when he died at a medical facility in Maryland, where we was being treated for cancer. He was 80 years old.
“Congressman Lantos was a steadfast friend of the Tibetan people, and particularly of His Holiness the Dalai Lama,” said Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, Special Envoy to His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Executive Chairman of ICT’s Board of Directors. “From the first time I met him in the 1980s until his passing away, I remained inspired by his sincere concern for the wellbeing of the Tibetan people. Congressman Lantos leaves behind a lasting legacy for Tibet with his leadership in institutionalizing the issue of Tibet,” he added.
Congressman Lantos was elected to Congress in 1980 and was serving his 14th consecutive term when he passed away. During his political career, which he pursued after a long and successful career in academia, he was known as an impassioned supporter of a broad range of social issues, most of which he was drawn to through his strong commitment to human rights. His championing of human rights throughout the world was a prominent feature of his tenure on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, which he served as the senior Democratic member since 2001, and as its Chairman since 2007. He also founded and co-chaired the Congressional Human Rights Caucus in 1983.
Tom Lantos himself traced his commitment to social justice back to his youth in his native Hungary, where many members of his immediate and extended family were killed in the Holocaust. As a Holocaust survivor, Tom Lantos spoke of human rights with unparalleled authority and integrity.
Congressman Lantos and his wife Annette first became acquainted with the Tibet issue when they visited Nepal in the early 1980s, and came into contact with the exiled Tibetan community. During an address to Congress in 2006 while presenting a bill to award the Dalai Lama the Congressional Gold Medal, Tom Lantos recalled how when he was in Nepal, he was profoundly moved by the exiled Tibetan community’s “passionate commitment to this incredible man of peace.”
Tom and Annette Lantos facilitated the Dalai Lama’s first government engagement in Washington, DC in 1987, when the Dalai Lama was invited to address a hearing of the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, which Tom Lantos continued to co-chair for the rest of his life. The Dalai Lama presented his five-point peace plan for resolving the Tibet issue at the hearing, and Congressman Lantos used the proposal as the foundation for a raft of legislation in support of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people which he sponsored or co-sponsored over the ensuing 20 years. Tom Lantos was therefore one of several key individuals – including Speaker Nancy Pelosi – to have ensured that the plight of the Tibetan people under China’s rule and in exile has been a constant concern for the United States government.
Most notable among the legislation he guided through Congress was the Tibetan Policy Act of 2002, which was designed to help the Tibetan people preserve their distinct national identity as a people and to support efforts by the Dalai Lama to achieve a negotiated political solution for Tibet.
Congressman Lantos’ dedication to the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan people culminated in October 2007 when on the basis of legislation he sponsored with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in the House, President George W. Bush presented the Congressional Gold Medal to the Dalai Lama at a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda – the first time a sitting US President agreed to appear publicly with the Dalai Lama. Lantos was deeply committed to forwarding dialog between the government of the People’s Republic of China and the Dalai Lama, and used his address to the Rotunda at the presentation ceremony for the Congressional Gold Medal to once again urge Beijing to enter into negotiations on the future status of Tibet. Speaking as ever without notes and in his distinctively eloquent style, he said: “There is nothing that will guarantee the right atmosphere for the Beijing Olympics more certainly and more forcefully than you inviting this man of peace to Beijing for serious discussions and, once and for all, resolving the dispute between you and His Holiness.”
Mary Beth Markey, Vice President for International Advocacy at ICT, said “Tom Lantos helped create the space in Washington for the Tibet issue to be supported and advanced. He and his wife Annette have been an indefatigable team in support of the important human rights issues of our time.”
The Capital Area Tibetan Association, an organization of Tibetan community members in the Washington, DC area, is holding a traditional Tibetan memorial prayer service for Congressman Lantos at ICT’s DC offices beginning at 4:30 pm on the evening of Wednesday February, 13.
