The United States Senate on June 4 passed S. Res. 252, expressing the sense of the Senate regarding human rights violations in Tibet, the Panchen Lama, and the need for dialogue between the Chinese leadership and the Dalai Lama or his representatives.
Senator Paul Wellstone introduced the resolution on April 25, 2002, marking the 13th birthday of the detained Panchen Lama and calling for his release.
Introduced on the eve of Hu Jintao’s visit to Washington, D.C, the resolution demonstrated to Hu the widespread support in the U.S. Congress for Tibet.
The resololution was also introduced in the House of Representatives as H.Res.410, sponsored by Christopher Smith (R-NJ), Frank Wolf (R-VA), Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), and Peter King (R-NY).
You can find Senator Wellstone’s statement on the introduction of S. Res. 252 here.