DATE=4/17/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=CHINA / TIBET / RIGHTS (L-O)
NUMBER=2-261417
BYLINE=LISA SCHLEIN
DATELINE=GENEVA
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: Chinese and Tibetan human-rights activists are
urging the U-N Human Rights Commission to censure
China for what they call its repressive policies.
Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports the Commission is due
Tuesday to discuss a resolution on the human-rights
situation in China.
TEXT: This will be the ninth-time a resolution
condemning China for its human-rights record has been
submitted to the U-N Human Rights Commission meeting
in Geneva. All eight previous resolutions have been
blocked. China has successfully used a procedural
measure called a "no-motion action" to keep the
resolution from coming to a vote.
Lobsang Nyandak is the Director of the Tibetan Center
of Human Rights and Democracy based in India. He says
the international community must not allow, what he
calls - such a miscarriage of justice - to happen
again. He says China has no reason to feel proud that
through, what he calls - its bullying tactics - it is
able to block debate at the Commission.
Mr. Nyandak says this procedural method will not solve
China's human-rights problems. If China does not want
to come under the human-rights spotlight, he says it
should release all political prisoners and respect the
fundamental rights of the Chinese and Tibetan people.
/// NYANDAK ACT ///
Then can China find a peaceful solution. And,
then can only China not have to work so hard to
silence the other states at the Commission.
Until then, it is in fact futile for the Chinese
delegations here to lobby too hard and to use
pressure tactics to buy votes.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Nyandak says even if China wins again, its victory
will be based on pressure and not on what he calls
truth and reality.
The United States is sponsoring the China resolution.
Barring any last-minute developments, the European
Union will not back the resolution.
Mr. Nyandak criticizes the E-U policy of quiet
diplomacy in the light of what, he says, is the
deteriorating human-rights situation in China. He
says victims of China's repressive policies are
looking with great anxiety and hope at what the U-N
Commission on Human Rights will do Tuesday.
/// 2ND NYANDAK ACT ///
If the United Nations Human Rights Commission
can censure China, then human-rights victims in
Tibet and China will feel encouraged, even if
they risk their lives by expressing human rights
or freedoms of their own people there is always
a world body, which is behind them, who is not
afraid of condemning China.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Nyandak says if the international community
maintains pressure on China, it will be compelled to
change its policies on human rights. He says pressure
works. Mr. Nyandak notes China would not have signed
the international Human Rights Conventions without
such pressure. (SIGNED)
NEB/LS/GE/RAE
17-Apr-2000 12:15 PM EDT (17-Apr-2000 1615 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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