Camberra, November 7. According Agence France Presse corrispondent, "Pro-Tibetan protesters disrupted the official welcome for senior Chinese leader Qiao Shi at the Australian senate here Monday. A group of 15 protesters seated at the front of the public gallery unfurled Tibetan flags and began shouting anti-Chinese slogans. 'Stop Chinese occupation of Tibet!', they said. 'Stop Chinese Genocide! ... Free Tibet!' Security attendants were instructed to remove the demonstrators from the chamber. Qiao, the National Peoples' Congress chairman who is on a week-long official visit to Australia, was sitting in the Senate president's gallery at the time of the staged commotion. The protest began when the upper house's president, Senator Michael Beahan, rose to welcome Qiao and his delegation, which is standard procedure for visiting delegations to the Australian parliament. Beahan warned the protesters that they would be removed if they did not put away their flags and sat down. They continued to protest and a second

group in the enclosed viewing galleries at the top of the Senate started banging on the glass. Beahan then directed attendants to remove the protesters. (EuroTibet News nr.5)