Published by: World Tibet Network News, Sunday, Apr 28, 1996

From: anders@cybernet.dk (Anders Andersen)

[The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Danish parliament on 26 April issued the following press release (translated from Danish) on the coming Tibet hearing that it organises: AA]

PRESS RELEASE 26 April 1996

The Foreign Affairs Committee of 'Folketinget' (the Danish parliament) on monday 13 May 1996, 9.30-17.00 hours, in Landstingssalen in Christiansborg (the parliament building), holds a hearing on human rights in Tibet.

The idea is that the hearing should examine the situation of Tibet historically and today as well as Tibet's status and demographic and geographic area. The future of Tibet is a significant subject as well. The main emphasis of the hearing is on the human rights situation in Tibet.

The subjects will be illuminated by a number of speakers, including professor Per Kjeld Sorensen, the University in Leipzig, general secretary dr. Michael C. van Walt van Praag, UNPO, H.H. the 14. Dalai Lama, professor Goran Melander, the Raoul Wallenberg Institute at Lund University, and general secretary Lars Normann Jorgensen, Amnesty International, Denmark. The Foreign Affairs Committee had also wished the subjects illuminated from the official Chinese quarters but the Chinese government has announced that it can not accept the invitation by the Committee to send a representative to the hearing. Instead, the Committee has therefore invited the chairman of the Federation for a Democratic China in Denmark, Gang Liu.

After the introduction and every main theme, it will be possible for the other speakers as well as for the audience to ask questions to the extent that the programme permits. The hearing will be conducted in English.

Invited to participate in the hearing are Folketinget's Foreign Affairs Committee, the Foreign Policy Board and the other parliament members, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a number of universities, humanitarian organisations, and organisations and individuals related to the subject of the hearing. The press will have access to the press box in Landstingssalen as far as space permits, provided they produce their press cards.

Any further information can be obtained from the secretary of the Foreign Affairs Committee, Jenni Birklund (tel. 33 37 55 14), or officer Ruth Winkel (tel. 33 37 55 38).