EUROPEAN UNION'S RESOLUTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS IN CHINA AND TIBET REJECTED IN FAVOR OF THE CHINESE RESOLUTION WHICH IMPEDES THE VOTE.

A SELL OUT OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN EXCHANGE OF BILLION DOLLARS WORTH CONTRACTS AND SUPPLIES.

ONE REMARK ONLY: SHAME !

Geneva, April 24, 1996. UN Commission on Human Rights has yesterday decided to accept a "No Action" motion, so rejecting from the debate and the vote the resolution on human rights in China and Tibet. The shameful decision de facto invites China in continuing, with no opposition by the international community, to pursue violations of the most basic freedoms and human rights.

The decision was passed by a majority of 27 votes against 20 (six abstained), so accepting the Chinese ambassador Wu Jianmin's statement: "That proposal of resolution is politically aimed, and even though it is graciously prepared, it confirms its anti-China nature. It is aimed against China as well as all the other developing countries. What we are seeing today against China, could happen tomorrow to any other developing country".

Chinese tactics of contrast between North and South paid back. Among those in favor, besides Cuba, India, and Indonesia, there were almost all the African countries, and also Ukraine, Belarus, and Peru.

Besides presenting its resolution, the European Union didn't go to a lot of bother in trying to build consensus on the initiative. Rather, under pressure by France, even the possibility to drop the resolution was considered. At the eleventh hour only, objections and differences were overcame by countries that at the Bangkok conference made billion dollars worth commercial agreements with China: France with Airbus planes, Germany with trains, Ukraine with ships, and especially Italy with Fiat carmaker... All in all, to protect the market and cover with a fig leaf human rights priciples and policies.

With reference to that, Secretary General of the Radical Party, MEP Olivier Dupuis, stated that "China's position represents a very dangerous challenge to the Commission's jurisdiction. UN has failed again, while EU kept only in words its policy on human rights. For Heaven's sake!, the huge Chinese market won!, together with billion-dollars worth credit lines and supplies to developing countries by rich European countries that went shopping: you see, it doesn't matter if China's development transits through millions of workers forcefully compelled to the "Laogai" lager context, through hundreds of thousands political prisoners, by the use of torture and capital punishment even for minor offences, and by the attempt to delete Tibet and Tibetans on the geographical map, by the persecution of religion and the kidnapping af the 6-year-old Panchen Lama. It doesn't matter..."

Radical Party