From: World Tibet News WEEKLY DIGEST

Published By: The Canada-Tinet Committee

NGOs from Tibet and Taiwan have been blocked from attending the UN Women's Conference next September in Beijing. China insists that Tibetan women will be represented only by Tibetan women from within the region. The Vatican is also blocking groups with views opposing the church's stance on abortion and birth control.

U.N. Summit On Women Bars Groups; China, Vatican Block Opponents'

Admission (WP)

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By Julia Preston

Washington Post Foreign Service

UNITED NATIONS, March 16 -- Women's groups from Tibet and Taiwan and

several organizations of Catholic women opposed to the church's stance on abortion have been blocked from attending September's giant U.N. women's conference in Beijing, diplomats said today.

Preventing these groups from obtaining credentials to attend the

conference have raised protests that China, the conference host, and the

Vatican are using their diplomatic influence to assert control over the

meeting.

The United Nations expects more than 30,000 official delegates and

representatives of nongovernmental organizations to attend what would be the largest U.N. gathering ever. China enthusiastically sought to host the conference, apparently hoping to showcase government programs that it says have improved the welfare of poor women. But many women's groups question whether China's Communist government would allow the conference to engage in freewheeling deliberations, especially among the nongovernmental groups.

As it attempted unsuccessfully at the U.N. population conference in Cairo last year, the Vatican is seeking to have its views on family life and abortion incorporated into the decisions of the women's conference.

[...]

At least seven groups of Tibetan women and four Taiwanese organizations

applied for credentials. U.N. officials organizing the Beijing conference denied their applications on grounds that they are not properly registered in China.

A Taiwan spokesman said the Taiwanese groups were not surprised by the

U.N. action. Since China was awarded Taiwan's U.N. seat in 1971, Beijing has systematically blocked Taiwanese representatives from participating in any U.N. activity.

But the U.N. decision against the groups from Tibet, which China

occupied in 1950, was more controversial. Most of the groups represent women who fled Tibet and banded together in other countries. One group, the International Committee of Lawyers for Tibet, is incorporated in the United States.

The United States has asked the United Nations to provide a list of all organizations whose credentials have been rejected, and the Commission on the Status of Women, meeting here this week, set up a special committee to review the protests.