Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2005-03-10-Speech-4-182"
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"en.20050310.22.4-182"2
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"Mr President, the situation in Tibet remains high on the political and human rights agenda of the European Union's relations with China. The EU is concerned about the preservation of the cultural, religious and linguistic identity of the Tibetan people, and more particularly about the restrictive conditions imposed by the central authorities on the exercise of religious freedom in the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Recently, some Tibetan monks were sentenced, allegedly for possessing portraits of the Dalai Lama. We heard that some were detained and beaten. We are also still waiting, in spite of continuous requests, for information on the whereabouts of the Dalai Lama’s choice of the eleventh Panchen Lama, Gedhun Choekyi Nyima.
We have seized every opportunity regularly to raise these concerns with our Chinese interlocutors. We have done so at the highest political level, for example at the seventh bilateral summit held in the Hague on 8 December 2004, as we have done regularly within the framework of the ongoing bilateral dialogue on human rights. During the last session of this dialogue, held in Luxembourg on 24/25 February 2005, the issue was again extensively addressed.
We have also brought to the attention of the Chinese authorities the situation of Tibetan individuals, together with individuals from all over China, who have been sentenced for freely expressing their opinion or belief. The case of Tenzin Deleg Rinpoche has become emblematic. We fully share the view that the European Parliament expressed in January in a resolution on Tibet and we will continue urging the Chinese authorities to release this monk at the earliest possible date.
We hope that a solution compatible with Chinese sovereignty and respect for the Tibetan population will be found soon. In our view, to reach this ultimate goal, there is no alternative to a peaceful process based on dialogue. We have called for years, and will continue to call, for such a dialogue. We, therefore, fully support the consultations that have taken place over the past years between Beijing and the representatives of the Dalai Lama. We welcome the fact that the two Special Envoys of the Dalai Lama were able to visit China last September for the third time since the resumption of contacts in September 2002.
We met - as we often have in the past - Kelsang Gyaltsen, one of the two Dalai Lama’s Special Envoys, on his return from China, and we felt encouraged by his positive assessment of the visit. We understand that progress has been made to narrow the gap between the existing respective positions. We hope that those developments will encourage the start of a meaningful and direct dialogue between Beijing and the Dalai Lama, which will lead to the recognition of genuine autonomy for the Tibetan region. We firmly believe that only such direct dialogue can be conducive to a lasting solution of the Tibetan issue.
In our view, the opening of a direct dialogue should not be subject to any precondition. On the other hand, the respective parties should refrain from taking any steps that would compromise the establishment of a climate of confidence, which appears indispensable if a solution is to be reached. In all circumstances, we would condemn violence from any quarter as a solution to the problem of Tibet.
The Commission would certainly be prepared to become more involved in finding a solution if it were the wish of the parties most concerned. We will, no doubt, continue to pay the greatest attention to the situation in Tibet and to press for conditions that allow the Tibetans to fully exercise their basic political, religious and cultural rights and permit the cultural identity of Tibet to be preserved."@en1
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