THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT PASSES TWO RESOLUTIONS ON THE PANCHEN LAMA AND THE CHINESE DISSIDENT WEI JINGSHENG.

THE RADICAL PARTY CALLS FOR A MOBILIZATION OF THE NATIONAL PARLIAMENTS IN EUROPE OVER THESE TWO UMPTEENTH CASES OF THE CHINESE "NEW CULTURAL REVOLUTION".

Brussels, December 19, 1995. The European Parliament passed a resolution condemning the Chinese authorities for their interference in the Panchen Lama designation. The resolution was an initiative by Marco Pannella, Noel Mamere and Gianfranco Dell'Alba (European Radical Alliance), members of the Radical Party, and James Moorhouse (European Popular Party), Adelaide Aglietta (Greens) and Jesica Larive (Liberals). With another resolution, the European Parliament denounced the new, heavy and absolutely groundless sentence inflicted upon Wei Jingsheng.

The approved text on the Panchen Lama "condemns the interference by the government of the People's Republic of China in designing the candidate to the title of Panchen Lama, which designation is strictly a religious matter, as well as the forced crowning of the candidate imposed by the Chinese authorities" and asks them "to commit themselves not to exercise any kind of pressure or intimidation on Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his family, especially for all that regards the freedom to exercise his spiritual role as the Panchen Lama". In its resolution the European Parliament also asks that the European Union financing of the PANAM project (a big project for rural development in Tibet) be conditioned to a change of attitude of the Chinese authorities over the Panchen Lama case.

The other approved resolution, besides condemning Wei Jingsheng's persecution by the Chinese government and demanding the release of Wei and all the political prisoners, "insist that the Commission and the Counsel evaluate the best way to initiate a joint action within the norms of the European Union Treaty in order to exercise long term pressures on China on human rights and considers that investments and commercial policies should be regarded as the most suitable instruments for such pressures".

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