Published by: World Tibet Network News, Monday, March 11, 1996

STRASBOURG, March 11 (Reuter) - European governments could use China's desire for closer ties with the West to urge Beijing to end repression in Tibet, the President of Tibet's Parliament inexile told Euro-MPs on Monday.

"The present situation in Tibet is very serious," Professor Samdhong Rinpoche told the European Parliament's foreign affairs committee. "If some changes are not brought about in a short space of time, the Tibetan people will be annihilated."

He spoke at the EU assembly the day after thousands of people demonstrated in Brussels to mark the anniversary of Tibet's 1959 uprising.

Some 2.1 million Tibetans have died since the revolt as a result of China's "illegal occupation," according to the 57-year-old Buddhist monk.

China was carrying out "gross violations of human rights" in Tibet, destroying the kingdom's cultural and spiritual heritage, ruining its environment and wiping out its "unique civilisation" through a population policy involving the transfer to Tibet of large numbers of ethnic Chinese, Rinpoche told his audience.

European governments could help by telling the Chinese authorities it would be "for their benefit" to improve their human rights record in Tibet, Rinpoche suggested.

They could also urge Beijing to reopen negotiations "without pre-conditions" on Tibet's future with the kingdom's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his government.

"We are absolutely ready to accommodate any Chinese demands," Rinpoche insisted, even if this meant renouncing Tibet's desire for independence.

"But we cannot possibly give up our rightful claims for political autonomy as a pre-condition for negotiations."