TIBET: THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT REQUESTS THE NOMINATION OF A SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR TIBET

STATEMENT BY OLIVIER DUPUIS, EUROPEAN DEPUTY AND SECRETARY OF THE TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY

Strasbourg: Friday, January 16th, 1998. As a result of the initiative conducted by members of the Radical and Green groups, the European Parliament has approved, by an ouststanding majority vote, a n urgent resolution which requests that "the Council and Commission nominate a special representative of teh European Union for Tibet, and who wil be in charge of taking all the necessary initiatives so that the European Union's demands concerning civil and political rights in Tibet be addressed, and to follow their progress." The parliament's resolution also asks that the Council and Commission take the neccessary action in favor of the freedom of the Panchen Lama, of Hada, (the President of the Inner Mongolia Movement), of Wang Dan and the Tibetan Chopel.

Statement by Olvier Dupuis, Secretary of the Transnational Radical Party and member of the ARE group:

"The European Parliament has once again requested that the Council nand Commission intervene on behalf of Tibet through the passage of an extremely concrete resolution: the nomination of a EU representative for Tibet. I hope that this presolution will be immideiately followed with effective practices which will permit Sir Leon Brittan and the actual President of the European Council to forsake the attitude that the Commission and Council prove their capacity, ingenuity and tenacity only when commercial and economic interests are at stake."

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