The House Magazine (British Parliament) - Lords' Diary - Feb 5, 1996

Viscount Mersey says human suffering abroad puts our problems in context

The week was about choices and rights. For most the much publicised right to send your child to the school of your choice: for me, the less publicised rights of people in distant lands to practice the religion of their choice.

The Countries are Sudan and Tibet. The religions are Christian and Tibetan Buddhist.

To which country does the following apply?

"He was forced to lie naked in the scalding sun all day on the roof of the house. While on the roof he was handcuffed with special handcuffs which tightened with movement and he was forced by beating to keep rolling over so that the handcuffs cut off the blood from the hands. At other times he was tied to a table and his legs and feet were beaten so badly that he was unable to stand. They then beat him to make him keep running saying that 'It is good for the circulation.

It could be Tibet easily, but it is really the story of Abu Adam Abu Bakir Omer of Port Sudan: one of many tortured by the National Islamic Front. Sundry such details emerged during tea with (Baroness) Caroline Cox and Patrick Wintour and Sarah Hayward of Skills for Southern Sudan. Caroline had just returned from a Christian Solidarity International Conference in Asmara. Sarah's job is to train Christian Sudanese to run their own country, or province, or region. The name does not matter so much as her belief that the current Government of the Sudan cannot long continue to torture and bomb the Southerners, and that when peace comes it will be essential to have a middle class experienced in self-government. Two thousand such intelligent Sudanese are in our Country. Two days later I happened to meet one in central lobby. Mr A. Haddi, the spokesman of The Official DUP ("My party is illegal but it has nothing to do with Ian Paisley"). Mr Hadi works in Farnborough for Shield Security. He provides mobile patrols, g

uard dogs, and personal protection.

Sarah wants to train people like Mr Hadi. Her organisation has a good track record, having previously trained black South Africans some years before the end of Apartheid.

So I live in hope that in a year or two Mr Hadi will have left Shield Security to become Regional Development Officer in Juba.

My interest in Tibet dates from some Himalayan trekking that we did 10 years ago. We reached Leh and saw the Dalai Lama.

The Chinese oppression of the Tibetan people is well known I am treasurer of the All Party Tibet Support Group. We are now witnessing a worsening of the situation which I do not believe HMG can condone.

The Dalai Lama addressed both Houses of Parliament two years ago at a meeting chaired by the Lord Chancellor. He welcomed the Dalai as the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, but kept quiet about his secular role. This disappointed us, but that limited spiritual recognition is now all important, as the Chinese seem to have broken it.

The problem lies in the appointment of the new number two Lama: the Panchen.

The Dalai, as is his right, chose Gedhun Choekyi Nyima as the 11th Panchen, in proper accordance with Tibetan tradition.

Shortly after his announcement Gedhum disappeared. So did his parents'. The Chinese then enthroned another boy as Panchen.

This treachery has already provoked both the US Congress and the European Parliament. Twenty-five US congressmen have written to the Chinese President Jiang Zemin urging: "You and your Government to respond to the long standing traditions of the Tibetan People and not to interfere in their religious or cultural activities .

The current activities by your Government concerning the Panchen Lama are likely to lead to widespread dissatisfaction in Tibet and to further unrest."

The European Parliament passed a Resolution on December 14 1995: "Having regard to the riots which followed the Government's decision and the ruthlessness with which they were quelled...

Condemns China's intervention in the nomination of the candidate for Panchen Lama... Urges the Chinese authorities to respect the wishes of the Tibetan people by accepting the Panchen Lama as recognised by the Dalai Lama...Requests the Government.. immediately to allow Union Diplomats to meet Gedhun Choekyi Nyima and his parents.. .in order to ensure that they are safe."

Our group sought a meeting with the Chinese Ambassador; Mr Jiang En Zhu, but in vain. Two of us: George Stevenson and David Willoughby de Broke did see the Minister Counsellor (number two at the Embassy) and the third secretary on January 23, with somewhat frustrating results.

But we are to meet Jeremy Hanley on February 5, and, in view of HMG's recognition of the Dalai as spiritual leader, surely they will protest to China in terms as strong or stronger than those employed by the Americans and the Europeans?

So that was my week: Tibet and the Sudan. There was also the official week, concerned mainly with reforming divorce law, and there was also the political week, concerned with the Hon Member for Peckham.

But do not the terrible oppressions, tortures and genocides that I have listed at least put the question of where children go to school into context?

Viscount Mersey is a Conservative peer

4 FEBRUARY 5, 1996, The House Magazine