Tibet: European Parliament debate on human rights

Olivier Dupuis (NI-Radical). Madam President, Madam Commissioner, colleagues, Mr Posselt is perfectly right, it is a question of a Tibetan majority within Tibet. And, Rt. Hon. Maes, the problem raised today by these
two death sentences also reveals the changes to the borders made by the Chinese. The Autonomous Region of Tibet is now only one third of the whole
of Tibet. There is also the province of Sichuan, much of which belongs to the historical Tibet.


The colleagues who preceded me have already spoken about this. Three months ago there was a sign of hope among some people on the return of Kelsang Gyaltsen and Lodi Gyari, the envoys of the Dalai Lama, from the first official visit to Beijing for far too long. In the meantime a *small* change
has taken place in the People¹s Republic of China. Hu Jintao has become the new president, the Secretary General of the Chinese Communist Party. <b>The
follow-up to the dialogue initiated is the death sentences handed to Tenzin Delek and Lobsang Dhondup.</b>


There are, Rt. Hon. Gebhardt, obviously better signs of dialogue. Having said that, I think that we must ask ourselves, as Members of the European Parliament and as Europeans, on the forms of our support for the Tibetan people. I think that we must ask ourselves this question seriously. There is a risk of exoticism, as there is a risk that the pacifist, rather than non-violent struggle of our Tibetan friends is not equal to the objective of the freedom of Tibet. An objective for the Tibetans, but also for all free men and women all over the world.


Almost three years ago, in June 2000, our Parliament passed a resolution inviting the governments of the Member States to recognise the Tibetan government-in-exile, that of the Dalai Lama. I think that is the way we can give strength to our Tibetan friends and show our Chinese friends that the Rule of Law is founded the solid bases of dialogue, and not only on the
appearance of dialogue, on these scraps of dialogue that they throw both to the Tibetans and us in Europe, to make us believe, as they have been doing for the past 40 years, that they are interested in dialogue, when actually they always reject true dialogue and any political solution.


<b>The Chairman of the Tibetan Goverment-in-exile, Prof. Samdhong Rinpoche, has asked for patience until June. I will be patient until June, but I think that from June onwards we must reconsider all our support for the battle for the freedom of Tibet. </b>