published by: World Tibet Network News, November 30, 1995

House of Representatives

28 November 1995

Forward by: Tibet Information Office - Australia

Mr JENKINS (Scullin) (7.45 p.m.) On a number of occasions in this place I have spoken upon the plight of Tibet, and the basis of my contributions has usually been on two problems in the way that the Chinese have conducted themselves in Tibet. One is the basis of the environmental degradation that the Chinese have oversighted and the second is the way in which they have taken it upon themselves to place pressure on the Tibetan culture, on Tibetan heritage and more importantly, on the basis of the Tibetan Buddhism religion.

The first item I want to briefly mention is the fact that at last the Chinese official have acknowledged that there is nuclear waste in the Tibetan autonomous region-so--called by the Chinese officials. Last night on the adjournment, the honourable member for Parkes (Mr Cobb) took some of us on this side to task in saying that we had not done enough to highlight China's continuing nuclear tests Can I say that, in anything I have said about the French tests, I have also included my disquiet and disgust that the Chinese government continues to indulge in nuclear testing. As the leader of the Australian parliamentary observer delegation to the AIPO conference in Singapore, I made sure that, when we put on notice our concern about testing in the region, it was the two powers that we were talking about. The importance of that was that China also had an observer delegation at that conference.

The two major concerns about environmental degradation in Tibet have been the existence of this nuclear waste, and the belief that nuclear testing may have taken place within Tibet. As I said, the Chinese government has acknowledged that there is a nuclear waste dump in the Haibei Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture. They claim that this is conducted in a proper manner and that over the 80 years of operation, there had not been 'any harm to thes environment'. This goes against the evidence of a number of international organisations who have reported that local doctors have seen abnormally high rates of diseases in some of the towns near this dump.

This is something that the world community should ask that the Chinese government look into. As with a number of the things that are happening in Tibet, it is proper that we call upon the Chinese officials to allow independent groups to come in and to investigate what is actually happening on the ground. From time to time there has been a reluctance to allow observer groups to go and look at specific problems.

The other thing I wish to mention tonight is the developing controversy about the appointment of the Panchen Lama. The Panchen Lama is the second highest ranking person within Tibetan Buddhism, below the Dalai Lama. The 10th Panchen Lama passed away in January 1989. Since then, the exhaustive processes that have a long traditional base have been undergone. In May this year, that culminated in the Dalai Lama's announcement of Gedhun Choekyi Nyima, a six-year-old boy from northern Tibet as the 11th Panchen Lama.

Initially, the Chinese officials accepted this announcement and did not repudiate it. They have since had a change of mind. The young boy has disappeared and the monk who was the head of the appointment body has also disappeared. There have been a number of complaints about the treatment of Tibetan monks from the monastery that deals with the education of the Panchen Lama. This is something that is a real problem. Chinese officials now are saying that they will be announcing an alternative appointment of another Panchen Lama. If this were to go ahead, it would really tear at the cultural basis of the Tibet people. It is a problem and the greatest problem that the Tibetans have actually confronted. There have been a number of things that they have had to put up with throughout the four decades or so since China took over. (Time expired)

(Mr Harry Jenkins is Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives and a member of the Parliamentary Group for Tibet)