THE AGE http://www.theage.com.au/daily/990729/news/news24.html Senator's Tibet call likely to anger Beijing By DAVID LAGUE CHINA CORRESPONDENT BEIJING, WEDNESDAY The Australian Greens Senator Bob Brown has called on the Howard Government to scrap its controversial human rights talks with China after a nine-day unofficial visit to Tibet that is likely to anger Beijing. Senator Brown said in Beijing today that his visit had shown there was clear evidence of extensive repression of Tibetan culture, with troops and security forces deployed in large numbers and Chinese settlers swamping the region. He also said that talks with Tibetans had revealed there was a strong desire for liberty and the return of their spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama. ``The Tibetans are being so overwhelmed. They can't breathe the word freedom,'' he said. ``My impression was that it was a giant militarised colony. The presence of army and militia vehicles and facilities was quite extraordinary.'' Senator Brown said he was only the second foreign lawmaker to visit Tibet unaccompanied since China occupied the territory in 1959. The United States Congressman, Mr Frank Wolf, visited Tibet for five days as a tourist in 1997 and later described China's occupation as a ``death grip'' on the region's indigenous population and culture. Beijing officials furiously rejected Mr Wolf's report as malicious and they are unlikely to welcome Senator Brown's views when he holds a press conference on his visit for the foreign media in Beijing tomorrow. Senator Brown's impressions support the work of human rights groups, including the Australia Tibet Council and the London-based Tibet Information Network, which say they have compiled evidence of widespread arbitrary arrests of monks and nuns, summary imprisonment, torture, rape and deaths in custody. The US State Department has endorsed their findings. Senator Brown said today that the Howard Government's policy of avoiding confrontation with China's leaders over human rights was a failure. ``I think the Australian Government should insist on the ability to freely go into Tibet with a fact-finding mission that would include unrestricted visits to prisons,'' he said. Jailed Chinese dissident Xu Wenli is suffering from swollen hands, ankles and abdomen, indications that he might have a heart or liver disease, his wife said today. Ms HeXintong, who visited Xu at the Yanqing prison in Beijing on Monday, said his feet were so swollen last month that he was unable to put on his shoes. Xu, 56, has served seven months of a 13-year jail sentence for his role in setting up the China Democracy Party, which was founded in 1998 to challenge single-party rule by China's Communist Party. ************************************************************************* This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." -- Leftlink - Australia's Broad Left Mailing List mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.alexia.net.au/~www/mhutton/index.html Sponsored by Melbourne's New International Bookshop Subscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=subscribe%20leftlink Unsubscribe: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20leftlink
