EU leaders turn a blind eye to Tibet

Date: 07/03/1996

By Elizabeth Wise

THE Tibetan flag, with its snowy lions and brilliant sunburst, will be flying over the town halls of 600 cities and villages across Europe next week on the anniversary of their uprising against Chinese occupation.

But this gesture of sympathy with the plight of the Tibetans is unlikely to persuade EU leaders to sit up and take note.

Fifteen heads of government and the 15 foreign ministers of the EU had their Chinese counterparts in a room with them for the whole of last weekend, and never mentioned Tibet, according to diplomats.

During the Asia-Europe summit in Bangkok, EU leaders were not really expected to drum any real lessons on human rights into their Asian partners. But their promises to bring up the subject should have provided some hope for Tibetans living under Chinese rule.

Instead, a joint declaration from the EU member states and ten Asian countries who attended the summit makes a vague reference to the “promotion of fundamental rights”, without mentioning specific rights or specific cases.

Professor Samhdong Rimpoche, president of the Tibetan parliament-in-exile in Daramsala, is not surprised.

“Tibet is never discussed in any summit. People know about it, but they are unable to speak out, he says, adding: “Western and eastern countries can never see China as it is. The West sees it as an unlimited potential market, and the East sees it as a big, dangerous military power. Neither side wishes to antagonise China, one because of greed and the other because of fear.”

EU officials, not least among them Trade Commissioner Sir Leon Brittan, went to Bangkok anxious, above all, to advance the Union's commercial prospects in Asia. Brittan has been heavily criticised for his China policy, accused of glossing over Beijing's abuses of Tibetans for the sake of European companies' profits.

The European Parliament has tried to curb EU cooperation with Beijing several times, but to no avail, partly due to a lack of resolve in the Parliament itself.

Italian Green MEP Adelaide Aglietta, a member of the interparliamentary delegation with Tibet, argues that “we don't want to block everything with China, because we need to keep talking to them”, and UK Conservative James Moorhouse says that “as much as we sympathise with Tibet”, MEPs feel the pressure from Beijing when they go too far in criticising Chinese policy.

Nevertheless, the Parliament has passed two resolutions which Tibetans see as giving strength to their cause. Last month, the EU assembly approved a text which, although it stopped short of diplomatic recognition of Tibet, stressed the Parliament's desire to maintain relations with the Tibetan parliament-in-exile.

MEPs are also hoping to win approval to send a delegation to Daramsala to underline their recognition of the assembly that has been in exile since 1949, when China occupied the Himalayan theocracy known as “the roof of the world”.

Dr Rimpoche is to meet Parliament President Klaus Hänsch in Strasbourg next week, where he will also address a number of parliamentary committees. But he is prevented by EU rules, which allow only the leaders of internationally-recognised nations on state visits to address the Parliament, from speaking before the full assembly.

The subject of human rights is increasingly finding its way into EU-China relations - the issue was discussed during a meeting in January between the troika and Beijing officials, and was referred to in the Bangkok summit declaration. But recent meetings of the political committee and of EU ambassadors in Brussels have continued to avoid the subject.

MEPs take comfort, however, from the fact that it was referred to in the declaration which emerged from the Bangkok summit.

Moorhouse said that although the wording was disappointing, it was an accomplishment to find any reference to it at all. “A year ago, I doubt the matter would have come up,” he said.

Along with Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Emma Bonino and some 6,000 demonstrators from as far away as Nice and Budapest, dozens of MEPs, are expected to march in Brussels this Sunday (10 March) to show solidarity with Tibet.

The following day, the Tibetan flag will fly over Liverpool, Rome, Strasbourg, Brussels and a host of smaller towns.

Bolstered by that kind of popular support, says Moorhouse, the EU should use the economic potential offered by increased trade as leverage to make China bow to Union demands, rather than regarding it as grounds for the EU to kowtow to Beijing.

But member states have their own agendas to pursue with China, with the UK not least among them. As it prepares to hand over Hong Kong next year and work continues on a draft bill of rights for nearly six million Hong Kong citizens, the UK government will be anxious to avoid antagonising Beijing over other minorities populations.

Dr Rimpoche is convinced, however, that after the bill of rights exercise and the handover is complete, the UK will find new sympathy for the Tibetan cause as Hong Kong citizens begin to suffer Chinese cultural, economic and political hegemony.

“When the Chinese intentions become more clear, we hope British support will become more tangible,” he says, adding that the cultural suffocation will start to show in two or three years. “It's on the cards.”