Published by: World Tibet Network News, Thursday, June 27, 1996

By Michael Shields

BONN, June 27 (Reuter) - Chancellor Helmut Kohl on Thursday defended a resolution passed by the German parliament criticising China's human rights record in Tibet, but insisted Bonn wanted good relations with Beijing.

Beijing was outraged by last week's resolution accusing it of trying to eradicate Tibet's cultural identity. It withdrew an invitation to Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel to visit next month and Bonn responded by freezing high-level contacts.

"I expressly reject comments from Chinese officials who want to deny the German parliament's right to comment on the human rights situation in Tibet and see in this interference in their internal affairs," Kohl told parliament on Thursday.

"The German parliament is not subject to censorship," he added to applause from deputies.

The chancellor went on to stress the importance of building good relations with the power whose political stability, he said, was the key to preventing turmoil in Asia.

"It would be a dangerous development if China were isolated from the rest of the world. This would have serious consequences for political stability in Asia and the world," Kohl said.

In spite of the diplomatic row sparked by the resolution, Kohl said Germany would maintain contacts with Beijing to try to promote economic and political reforms there.

"We want to cooperate with China in the future and I am sure many people in Beijing see this the same way," he said.

China says the resolution, approved almost Unanimously last Thursday, encourages Tibetan secessionism by referring to Tibet's "government-in-exile."

China sent troops into Tibet in 1950 to cement its control over the area and insists the Himalayan region is an integral part of Chinese territory.

Kohl reaffirmed that Bonn supported this "one China" policy, adding: "I would remind you that China always believed in the unity of the German nation and that China supported German unification."

Opposition parties accused Kohl and Kinkel of sending mixed signals about Bonn's policy to China's communist rulers. They said Germany had put human rights on the back burner to spur German business opportunities in China's booming economy.

Germany is China's fourth-biggest overall trading partner and by far its most important commercial link in Europe.

"We want a dialogue with China, but we cannot let China exclude important subjects from the dialogue," said Guenter Verheugen, deputy parliamentary leader of the Social Democrats.

Last year Kohl became the first Western leader to visit Chinese troops since the army bloodily crushed a pro-democracy demonstration in Beijing in 1989. He also drew fire at home for visiting Tibet in 1987.

He insisted that he and other German officials had always raised the issue of human rights with Chinese leaders.

"The accusation is false that the government puts economic interests ahead of human rights considerations," he declared.

Although both governments have now signalled they want to put the row behind them, it has raised fears among German companies that they might lose contracts or business in China.