EU must condemn Tibetan death sentences during dialogue with China: FTC
Phayul[Thursday, May 14, 2009 11:01]
Dharamsala, May 14 – The Free Tibet Campaign has urged the European Union to raise with China the issue of “recent imposition of death penalty on five Tibetans as well as China’s persistent failure to account for the whereabouts of more than 1000 Tibetans detained after last year’s protests in Tibet and who are still missing.” EU officials will meet Chinese representatives today in Prague for the 26th human rights dialogue in the Czech capital Prague.
While welcoming the dialogue with China, the London based Non Governmental Organization, in a press release issued yesterday, said the participating EU officials must do much more than simply use the opportunity as a forum for resumption of constructive engagement with China.
The FTC urged the EU officials to “demand from their Chinese counterparts that the death sentences be quashed with immediate effect and that any further cases related to protests in Tibet in March and April 2008 should be suspended until a full and independent inquiry into those events, as called for by the UN Committee Against Torture in November 2008, has been held.”
China postponed the last summit scheduled to have taken place in France in December 2008, citing its opposition to a scheduled meeting between French president Nicholas Sarkozy and the Tibetan leader Dalai Lama.
Director of the Free Tibet Campiagn, Stephanie Brigden, said, EU officials have a vital opportunity to express before their Chinese counterparts their firm opposition to the death sentences passed on the five Tibetans.
The meeting is expected to focus on two principal areas, access to justice in China and Tibet, and the rights of defendants in criminal proceedings to legal defence; and protection for persons with disabilities.
“It would be unforgiveable in a dialogue supposedly addressing shortcomings in the access to justice for the EU not to make a strong statement of concern about these very real death sentences that were imposed in courts closed to independent observers”, said Brigden.
Tags: EU, Free Tibet, Namgyal Rapper, Tibet, Tibetan