Wire Service: AAP (Australian Associated Press)

Date: Tue, Sep 5, 1995

By Louise Evans and Mike Osborne of AAP

BEIJING, Sept 5 AAP - Australia will make its second protest to the Chinese government in less than a week over spying, intimidation and an ugly fracas involving Ambassador Michael Lightowler during the UN sponsored women's conference.

Chinese officials triggered a major diplomatic incident today when Mr Lightowler came to the rescue of two Australian Tibetan delegates who were under seige at the women's forum site at Huairou, an hour's drive from Beijing.

Mr Lightowler was harangued by a crowd of Chinese officials and Chinese Tibetan delegates who surrounded the two Tibetans living in exile in Australia and accused them of telling lies and of being the enemies of China.

"I have two things to say to you people," Mr Lightowler told the screaming group.

"I am the Australian Ambassador. These people are Australian citizens and I have a consular responsibility to protect them."

The two women, Dorji Dolma, 35 and Kelsang Wangmo, 37, were in tears and very shaken after the incident and were then escorted to an embassy car and driven from the site to their Beijing hotel.

Australian Foreign Minister Gareth Evans has instructed Mr Lightowler to make "strong representations" to the Chinese Government over the "unacceptable" treatment suffered by the two women at the hands of the Chinese hosts.

The incident erupted after the women met with visiting Australian Health Minister Carmen Lawrence who said she was "shocked and disappointed" by the Chinese treatment.

"It is most unacceptable that Australian women are being harassed in this way," Dr Lawrence said.

"This was supposed to be a UN area where people could demonstrate and protest about any matter and draw it to the attention of the international community.

"I am shocked by the treatment, as I understand it, that was meted out and I don't condone it one little bit."

Australia will protest again about Chinese officials spying on Australian delegates who have suffered overbearing security at conference sites and at their meetings.

The Australian Government officially complained to the Chinese Foreign Ministry and to the Chinese Embassy in Canberra last Friday after security officials tried to shut down an Australian delegates' meeting on Thursday.

Although the meetings were permitted to continue, two plain-clothed security men returned last night to secretly videotape a gathering of several hundred Australian delegates in the five star Kunlun hotel.

Other Australian delegates also complained that their daily breakfast strategy meetings were being videotaped.

"We are being taped or monitored at almost every moment, whether we are at the hotel or at the official UN conference area," one Australian delegate said.

"The monitoring is pretty obvious, certainly it's not very subtle. I've never seen anything like it."

The Australian delegation was determined however not to be intimidated by the tactics of the Chinese hosts while the two Tibetan Australians have vowed to return to the forum site and continue their work.

"It's been very frightening but this is the worst treatment we have suffered," the Tibetan-born Ms Dolma told AAP.

"We are still very frightened but this has given us strength to fight for the women who must suffer this treatment daily in Tibet.

"We feel very fortunate that we live in Australia and have the support of the Australian Government.

"The aim of the Chinese seems to be to provoke us to find an excuse to detain or deport us but we are not going to give them that pleasure. Our struggle is non-violent."

Dr Lawrence had asked specifically to speak with the two Australian Tibetans who told her how they had suffered continuous security harassment and been under constant surveillance since arriving in Huairou, 48 km from the Chinese capital.

After the informal meeting, a group of about 15 Chinese officials and Chinese Tibetan delegates moved in and began intimidating the pair.

They were pushed and shoved by security officers and accused by the official Chinese Tibetan delegates of telling lies about the southern Chinese autonomous region on the border with Nepal that is at the centre of an independence struggle being led by the exiled Dalai Lama.

Australian diplomats stayed back after the meeting to watch over the two women in case of trouble and were forced to shepherd them into a nearby Australian workshop tent to escape the torment.

Chinese officials took notes throughout the melee, which was to be reported to the Chinese organising committee for the UN forum by a human rights monitoring group set up at the Huairou NGO site.

Dr Lawrence said the incident demonstrated how far the world had to go to solve the problems of human rights, oppression and discrimination even at international women's conferences.

"Australia has to continue to push for a high standard of human rights and civil rights and to draw attention to any breaches that we see," she said.